In the 50-something years I have been chronicling the pursuits of three generations of Andretti race car drivers, I think I had only four meaningful conversations with Dee Ann Andretti. That wasn’t because my readers and I wouldn’t have benefited from what she had to say. Dee Ann Andretti, who died Monday at the age of 75, was always friendly when we talked; it was just that she never cared about being in the spotlight.

If you watch an IndyCar Series race these days, you’ll see drivers’ wives, sometimes with infants or toddlers in their arms, waiting to give their husbands one last peck before they climb into the cockpit. I could never envision Dee Ann and Mario taking part in that ritual. In fact, Dee Ann not only passed on prerace festivities, she didn’t concern herself with Victory Lane celebrations, either.