The Sneak — a serialized podcast from For The Win and USA TODAY, which tells true crime stories from inside and around the world of sports — is back for its third season, called The Disappearance of Mario Rossi.
Rossi was, by all accounts, a brilliant NASCAR crew chief and engineer from the 1960s and ’70s who worked with racing legends like Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip. But just after New Year’s Day in 1983 — four years after his last NASCAR race — Rossi disappeared.
Through a series of mysterious phone calls, the Rossi family was told Mario died in a plane crash in the Bahamas, but some family members and loved ones didn’t believe it. They said the information they were fed didn’t add up.
But if he didn’t die in a plane crash in 1983, what happened to him?
On this season of The Sneak, we will investigate Rossi’s sudden and quiet disappearance with the help of his family. But in our attempt to uncover what happened to Rossi nearly 40 years ago, we have to look deep into a $300 million drug-smuggling ring that infiltrated NASCAR, and it could explain, well, everything.
You can binge the entire third season of The Sneak right now on Wondery Plus, either on wonderyplus.com/sneak or via the Wondery Plus app.
The full season will be available April 6 anywhere you get your podcasts. But for now, here’s a sneak peek of the season, which you can listen to on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.