outbraked the Wolf and pulled inside him entering the hairpin. "It's not that he went wide," he said afterwards, "I just got him clear at the braking point, and then after I went by him, I distanced myself." The frenzied crowd of 70,000 finally burst into rapturous applause as Andretti accelerated into the lead. Scheckter's despair was complete when Lauda also went by on the next lap. The crowd cheered Andretti home, deflecting considerable pressure from Lauda right to the flag, as he won by less than a second. "It is one of the nicest moments of my career, even more satisfying than winning Indianapolis and really gratifying to have so many people pulling for me," Andretti said. "The car remained perfectly balanced throughout the race and the brakes were superb." "It was not that I was given a break," Mario still insists. "I outbraked him clean. To me, it was just as satisfying a win. Jody tried to say that the only reason I passed him was because the tire was going down; but if that was the case, he would have had a lot of smoke and a lot of locking up, and there was none of that. So, it was a good, satisfying win." Scheckter held on for third place, and the scoring was completed by Patrick Depailler's Tyrrell, over a minute behind; Emerson Fittipaldi in the Copersucar; and Jarier in the ATS Penske-Ford. Classification Qualifying Race Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings Constructors' Championship standings References Further reading Doug Nye (1978). The United States Grand Prix and Grand Prize Races, 1908–1977. B. T. Batsford. Rob Walker (July, 1977). "2nd United States Grand Prix West: Patience At 11,000 RPM". Road & Track, 112–117. Gordon Kirby (April, 1997). "Proof of Concept". RACER, 68–103. Pete Lyons (April, 2002). "One Day At The Beach". RACER, 74–78. United States Grand Prix West United States Grand Prix West 1977 in American motorsport United States Grand Prix West