Andy Granatelli

Anthony "Andy" Granatelli (March 18, 1923 – December 29, 2013) was an American businessman, most prominent as the CEO of STP as well as a major figure in automobile racing events.

Along with his brothers Vince and Joe, he first worked as an auto mechanic and "speed-shop" entrepreneur, modifying engines such as the flathead Ford into racing-quality equipment.

Hurricane events, according to Granatelli in his autobiography They Call Me Mister 500, included drivers who were experts at executing—and surviving—roll-over and end-over-end crashes, and also an ambulance that not only got caught up into the race but also ejected a stretcher (with a dummy on it) into the way of the racers.

He clad his pit crews in white coveralls with the oval STP logo scattered all over them, and once wore a suit jacket with the same STP-laden design.

In both years, he saw probable race-winners fail near the end; Joe Leonard's breakdown in the Lotus 56 with 10 laps remaining in 1968 had been topped the previous year when Parnelli Jones, leading comfortably with just three laps to go, suffered the failure of a six dollar transmission bearing in the STP-Paxton Turbocar and retired, handing a sure victory to A. J.

[8] Granatelli died from congestive heart failure at the age of 90 on December 29, 2013 in Santa Barbara, California.