Formula 1 world champion Mario Andretti admitted he once fought film star Burt Reynolds at a bar in New York.

The surprising tale was revealed by another actor, Jay Chandrasekhar, who claimed in a recent interview (below) that Reynolds told him the story. Andretti confirmed to The Telegraph he had fought Reynolds.

“I think I was a little faster than him,” said Andretti. “But yeah, I beat him up! We had a beer together later.”

Reynolds, who starred in the 2001 film “Driven” based on the CART IndyCar series, died in 2018.

Chandrasekhar gave more of Reynolds’ account of the fight, claiming he used an ethnic slur to refer to Andretti.

“This guy started to get pissed off and he starts chirping and I’m like, ‘you wanna go outside’? And he goes ‘yeah, I do’.

“So we go outside into – it’s February in New York, it’s like 20 degrees [Fahrenheit, -6C] – and we’re circling each other in the street, we’re kind of circling together.

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“And he says, when this dude hits me, I go, ‘oh no’. Because his punch is so strong. But I’m Burt Reynolds, right? So I fucking drill this guy, and we’re just drilling each other. And I’m so impressed with his punch.

“After about two minutes, maybe a minute and a half, I go, can we take a break? And the guy goes, yeah, yeah. Let’s take a break. And Burt [says] I reach over and go ‘hey, I’m Bert Reynolds’. And the guy goes, ‘I’m Mario Andretti’.”

Note: This video contains strong and discriminatory language

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