When drivers are introduced for Saturday’s NASCAR Truck Series race at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway), and next weekend’s Truck race as part of the IndyCar season-opening race in St. Petersburg, Fla., fans may do a double-take (or a double-listen, you might say) when they hear one driver’s surname announced.

It’s a name that is sheer racing royalty, among the most successful and legendary monikers in all of motorsports:

Andretti.

Veteran racer Adam Andretti, who has become one of the more successful drivers in the Trans Am road racing series, will make his NASCAR Trucks debut at Atlanta (FOX Sports 1 at 1:30 p.m. ET, SiriusXM and NASCAR Racing Network) and then follow it up the following week at St. Pete. He also has starts planned later in the season at Watkins Glen (May 8) and the inaugural Grand Prix of San Diego on Naval Base Coronado (June 19).

Son of the late Aldo Andretti, brother of the late John, nephew of legendary Mario, and cousin of Michael, Marco, and Jeffrey, Adam is embarking on the next phase of his 30-year racing career. He’s signed to make a minimum of four starts in the No. 5 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro truck for TRICON Garage, in addition to yet another full season in Trans Am.

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As Trans Am prepares for its milestone 60 season this year, Andretti is coming off his most successful seasons in the series, finishing a close runner-up to former NASCAR Cup driver Paul Menard, who captured his second TA title in a row.

Andretti, who turns 47 next month, has an extensive racing resume over the years, competing in numerous series, including all levels of Trans Am, ARCA Menards, NASCAR Canada, NASCAR Southwest, ASA, Indy Lights, Midgets, Stadium Super Trucks, United States Formula 3, the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona and go-karts.

He’s also a respected performance driving coach and driving school instructor, a broadcaster, and worked with several racing-related publications.

Andretti has made 105 starts in TA since 2013, with nine wins, 49 top-five and 72 top-10 finishes. His runner-up to Menard last season was the fourth time Andretti has finished second, doing so in Trans Am 2 in 2014 and 2015 and in Trans Am Historical in 2022.

He had hoped to make his NASCAR Trucks debut last weekend at Daytona International Speedway, but bad weather washed out a licensing test the week before, forcing him to postpone his first truck race to this weekend.

Andretti recently sat down for an exclusive interview with EssentiallySports. Here are some excerpts from that conversation:

Q. How excited are you at getting in a truck and racing for TRICON?

Andretti: I am at a loss for words for how blessed I feel to be making my first career start in the Craftsman Truck Series. To have the opportunity to represent the best in spray-in bed liner products with TopLiner and drive a Toyota Tundra for TRICON, an organization with a proven winning tradition, is something my fans around the world won’t want to miss. A sincere thank you to everyone who has helped make this step in my career possible. I can’t wait to hit the track and show what we’re capable of as a team.

Q. You’ve raced in so many different series in your career. What has made you compete in all different types of racing?

Andretti: The biggest thing for me when I went racing from the very beginning, it was really important to me to do it on my own terms because everyone around me was established. Everyone in my family had established themselves, and honestly, I could have had a pretty easily laid path for any of the directions I wanted to go. I grew up around a lot of racing families, and the kids were all going racing because mom and dad were paying for it.

I never wanted that. I never wanted someone to ever look at me in my career and say, ‘Oh, he did it because he had to do it. He’s an Andretti.’ That’s literally why you’ll find me as the only Andretti that’s ever driven professionally in this sport that’s never driven a car that’s owned by an Andretti. That’s been a big shining point for me in my career because I’ve achieved what I’ve achieved on my terms.

Q. Instead of going into IndyCar like the rest of your racing relatives, you found a home in Trans Am. What was it about TA that lured and kept you in it?

Andretti: When I hit my growth spurt, I became a six-foot-tall Andretti when I was a teenager. My family would tease me and say, ‘If you’re going to drive race cars, you better look at Peterbilt trucks or Trans Am (he said with a laugh).’ So back then, Trans Am every weekend was with IndyCar.

I was watching Trans Am races really intently and paying attention, catching up on the history of it. What I discovered was Trans Am was quite literally the only form of professional motorsport in the United States that nobody in my family had ever competed in.

Q. What was it like to literally grow up in racing?

Andretti: I fell in love with the innovation. I fell in love with every year at Indy, it was different cars, different engine combinations, different tires, even sometimes. And the engineering that went around that, and the work that a driver had to do to get the most out of a car like that, to get the most out of the group that they’re working with, and the development. I got to witness that.

I feel like that’s where my Uncle Mario had an amazingly successful career, he was so good at development, he just far exceeded his competition in that way. And now we live in a world that is quite spec. Sure the racing has been great and I don’t think anyone can argue with some of the quality of the racing, but there is something definitely missing.

I think most of us who have been around for a long time, we feel and we sense in every aspect that Trans Am is one of the few out there that is still pure, still raw. You can still build what you built in your garage, and you can bring it – and that’s special to me.

It’s more shared components and things like that, but you can still innovate. And the cars are just absolutely bada– to drive. I mean, a TA car, you have 900 horsepower and you have like 15 inches of tire on the back to plant that power. You have what I consider the perfect marriage of mechanical grip and aero grip. We have great cars aerodynamically. They perform great under braking and in cornering because of that.

But at the same time, if you’re tucked up behind a car, your race isn’t done, you can still race that car because you’ve got great mechanical grip as well. That is what’s always attracted me and kept me in the sport.

Q. Trans Am is as competitive as any other racing series, but if there is one distinction, it seems like a more friendly and family-like paddock, right?

Andretti: The Trans Am paddock is special. The competitors are special in a way that they’re just a great group of people. The camaraderie is unique, the teams are incredibly talented, and the talent that we have at Trans Am is all the talent that you had at the big levels of motorsports all those years ago.

They’re all people I grew up around because they got tired of the grind. They got tired of the lack of enjoyment. And really honestly, they didn’t like the spec side of things and that got monotonous for them.

So they look at this and this was like a great way to go. And it was only 12 weekends or so a year that they had to be away from the family, the racing is great and the competitive spirit is great.

So the people, mixed with the competition, mixed with the special kind of race car that still reminds me of the good old days, but it still has a lot of all the modern touches to keep people like the young generation interested. That’s what keeps me around Trans Am, man. I call it one of the best-kept secrets in racing, but we don’t need to keep it a secret. It needs to be less of a secret because the motorsports world doesn’t pay attention enough to it, but when they do, when you enlighten somebody about it, they’re hooked on it.

They’re like, ‘This is the best freaking racing you can find. It’s absolutely pure, raw, unadulterated racing.’ They’re just down home, they’re just absolute racers. No one’s getting rich doing it. Just like short track racing, they’re doing it because they love it and they get a lot of self-satisfaction out of performing. It’s like my dad always said, nobody works harder than these guys.

Q. Is there any modern-day racer in any series that you wish were in Trans Am?

Andretti: I’ve always said I think we really missed the boat with Kyle Larson. When I first saw him at 15 years old and how dominant he was in a 900 horsepower non-winged sprint car, if we harnessed that and put him in road racing at that time and got him in Formula cars and then sent him to Europe, he would have been a Formula One world champion without any doubt in my mind, because he had that aggression that you need.

Q. Would you like to still have a shot at racing in the Indy 500?

Andretti: It’s always there. My entire year is spent trying to convince somebody to foot the bill for me to run the Indianapolis 500. Cause I know if I at least get into one of them, that’ll seal the deal for me to run many, many more because I have a lot of confidence in my abilities, and I know I’m confident in my marketability as well, how I present myself, and how I come off with the public and sponsors. The people that pay the bills need to see that, but also the competitors would take note of that, so the fight’s always there.

I’m going to be 47 when May comes around for this year’s Indy 500. I don’t have anything, no prospects for this year’s race, but don’t think I’m giving up. I’m working for 2027. I have maybe an easier sell because they’re going to have the new race car and everyone is going to have to get used to it, just like I will have to get used to it, so we’ll all kind of be in the same boat.

Q. When (former Indianapolis Motor Speedway president and Indy Racing League founder) Tony George started the IRL, I understand he came to you to race in the Indy 500, but you turned him down. Why was that?

Andretti: It was like the third year of the Indy Racing League. Tony was feeling the impact of not having any Andrettis at the Speedway. He offered to put me in a car. I was 20 years old and could have been in the Indy 500.

But when I talked to my dad about that, he pointed out that it was going to be damaging to our family. It was going to hurt because everyone was very vocal about the split (between the IRL and CART). If I would have gone and run the Indy 500 at that point – everyone would look back at it now and it would be no big deal – but in that moment it would have caused such strife in our family that it was an opportunity that had to be pushed away. And little did we know that just few years later, they would have come back together (CART drivers would once again be back racing in the 500).

But you don’t have a crystal ball and I don’t regret that I (turned George down) by any means. I’m a firm believer in God puts you everywhere you’re supposed to be at that time.

Q. What does Uncle Mario think of your racing success?

Andretti: He has been nothing but incredibly supportive of the Trans Am journey for me and he loves it. He’s been really good and he’s always expressed to me a great deal of pride because of what I’ve done and also the way I’ve done it.

I think I remind him a lot of the way that he and my dad approached the sport: as lone wolves together, and they had this dream that they carried together. I’ve had full support of my family. I’ve just gone and done my own thing and wanted to race on my own merit, and it’s served me quite well. I’ve had a long career. I’m the last man standing in the Andretti family still doing it. I carry a lot of pride with that as well.

If I can hang on till 2029, we’ll mark 70 consecutive years that an Andretti has been on grid in motorsports. There’s a great deal of joy that brings me.

Q. Last year in Trans Am, you and Paul Menard went down to the final race before Paul won his second straight title and you finished runner-up. What did you take away from that season?

Andretti: I feel like two years in a row we gifted Paul a championship (he said with a laugh). In 2024, we just had mechanical failure after mechanical failure developing a brand new car.

Q. You have great momentum coming off last year and heading into this year. Would it be even sweeter to win your first TA championship because it will come in Trans Am’s 60 anniversary season?

Andretti: Absolutely. When you can hit a marquee-like year like that and maybe that’s what God’s plan is for me to hit a marquee year. We’re putting everything into making the best of the 60th anniversary. I feel very good about our chances and that it could be a special year. I think any time a motorsport or any sport celebrates anything over 50 years, you’ve done something special. I was there for their 50th anniversary 10 years ago. So I got to be a part of that marquee anniversary as well.

Q. What was one of the most inspirational stories that you recall from your career?

Andretti: Racing is hard-nosed. You’ll be hard-pressed to find another sport that competes as hard as we do. Because our sport is so dangerous, you have a family. When something happens, family’s there and we’ve all been there for each other.

I’ll never forget back when Nelson Piquet shattered both his legs in a practice crash at Indy. At the end of the day, my dad and I were leaving and we made a left instead of a right to go back to Brownsburg (his team’s shop) out of the speedway. I go, ‘Where are we headed?’ And he goes, ‘We’re headed to Methodist Hospital.’ And I go, ‘Why?’ And he goes, ‘Nelson was in a bad crash and we should at least go say hi. He’s Brazilian and he may not have anybody here.’

We showed up and he was coming out of anesthesia because they had just got done doing surgery on his legs. My dad was right, (Piquet) didn’t have anybody there. He recognized my dad, but what was funny was he greeted him and thought he was Mario. My dad was quick to correct him. My dad greeted him in Italian because Nelson spoke Italian. We were only going to stay for a few minutes, but he and my dad talked for 45 minutes in Italian.

We left there, and it was a great lesson for me because in my personal career, if there’s been a competitor that’s gone to the hospital, I’ve made it a point to either go to the hospital to check on them or to help their family. If there’s any way we can help, or at the very least call them, just let them know that, ‘Hey, we’re here. Let me know if they do admit you, I’ll come down, I’ll bring you food, clothes, whatever you need.’ My dad taught me that very valuable lesson at a very young age, caring for other racers.

That’s what we have here. We have just an amazing family in our sport of people that look out for each other. I’ve always said that if the apocalypse ever happened, the last group standing is going to be racers because they’re family, they believe in each other and they’re very comfortable with explosives (he said with a big laugh).

Q. Trans Am returns to Indianapolis Motor Speedway this year for the first time since 2023 (and only the fifth time in the series’ history). With the Andretti name and legacy, do you get extra pumped because of what that place has meant to your family, and what would it mean for you to win there?

Andretti: Without question, that was marked on the calendar the second they put it up. Like everyone in our family, I feel like that place owes me in Trans Am because the last time we were there, we ran a hard race.

We were running second to Matthew Brabham, battling the whole race. For whatever reason, the chief steward sent us green on a restart after a caution, and there was debris on the track going into turn one still. When you’re tucked up with those cars, you can’t see anything. I was tucked up with Matthew, who moved to the right and I thought he moved to the right to block the braking zone. He moved to the right to miss a piece of metal that was in the track that I eventually ran over and blew my left front tire, and ended my race.

But then what was crazy about that was a lap later, Matthew had a power steering issue, was losing about a second and a half a lap time and would have just basically gifted the race to us. So yeah, I’ve got that one marked, bud.

It would mean so much to me to add to the list of the family that’s won at the Speedway. Everyone thinks of Mario (won) in ‘69 and that’s true. But I don’t want to discount that Marco won there when (Indy Lights) ran the road course.

And my nephew, Jared, won in SRO competition there in a McLaren the year he won the championship and he won it at Indianapolis. So I want to make sure I give proper shoutouts to our family that has also had success at the Speedway because it’s a special place.

I’ve loved every lap I’ve ever gotten to drive around that speedway. When you get there and you get to race professionally, it’s special and you just feel like you’ve made it.

Q. You’ve done so many different styles of racing. Is there any style you haven’t done that’s still on your bucket list?

Andretti: Yeah, dirt late models. They’ve definitely piqued my interest. The racing is phenomenal, so freaking good. The cars are fun to drive.

I’ve got to say Robby Gordon’s Stadium Super Trucks are probably the most fun I’ve ever had holding a steering wheel and pressing pedals in my entire career. Robby is a good guy and such a creative individual.

Q. Everybody loves the Andretti name. Is there a family secret that nobody really knows about the Andrettis?

Andretti: This is where we’re very Italian. If anyone outside of our family tries to do something, we jump on them like pit bulls. We’re so loyal to each other. The thing that I love about my family, and I tell this to people all the time, is there’s not one person in our family that doesn’t have a great sense of humor.

If there is a hidden secret, most of my family, especially Mario’s side, are very talented water skiers and love water sports. Mario’s an excellent water skier; my cousin, Barbie, his daughter, is another excellent water skier; Marco is a brilliant water skier. I’d say that would be kind of like the family’s hidden athletic secret.

Q. Everyone knows Mario’s public racing persona. But what is “Uncle Mario” like in family life?

Andretti: You don’t realize it until you get a little bit older of the magnitude of what he really is. When you’re a kid, you’re like, ‘Oh man, my uncle has a cool job, he’s a cool guy and he’s got cool toys.’

But as you get older, you start to have meaningful conversations with him and you really enjoy them, the stories and the whole bit. To wrap it up in a word, it’s been a blessing, a massive blessing because not only are you able to be around a global figure like that, but that the global figure is also a very humble human being. You almost have to remind him of who he is, he’s so humble in that sense. His stories are my favorite. He can have me as long as he wants to tell his stories, ‘cause I eat them up with a spoon. I love every bit of his stories. He’s one of the great storytellers.

He’s a lot of fun to be around, man. He’s inspiring cause he’s going to be 86 (February 28) and the man can run circles around anybody still with his energy levels. Every morning, he wakes up and has got a purpose every day. He’s been a very, very good uncle to me.

Q. Mario is your father Aldo’s twin brother. Besides looking alike, were their personalities alike?

Andretti: Since losing my dad in December 2020, that’s been the best blessing about my dad being an identical twin: when I want to hear my dad’s voice, I can call Uncle Mario and I can really kind of still hear my dad’s voice. And he gives such similar advice.

He’s kind of taken on that responsibility (of being a second father to Aldo’s kids). He calls us up and checks in on us and does the things that you would expect my dad would have done.

I still miss my dad dearly because you only get one of those, but nonetheless, it’s such a massive blessing for me and my siblings that we have my Uncle Mario still.