Marco Andretti races for redemption at Indy 500

By Bruce Martin PA SportsTicker Contributing Editor

INDIANAPOLIS (Ticker)—Not a day goes by that Marco Andretti has not thought about the finish of last year’s Indianapolis 500.

It’s indelibly etched in his mind, as well as the 400,000 fans that saw the last lap play out at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Andretti, who at that time was just 19, was on his way to a historic victory, becoming the first teenager ever to win the world’s biggest race.

But that dream died hard just a few hundred yards from the checkered flag when Sam Hornish Jr.’s IndyCar blew past him and won the race.

It was easily the most exciting finish in the 90 Indy 500s, but that wasn’t the kind of excitement young Andretti wanted to experience.

“I feel the same right now as it did that night,” Andretti said. “It bugs me that I didn’t win. There hasn’t been a day since then that I don’t think about it.”

Andretti went to the team party last year but admitted he wasn’t having fun.

“I just wanted to be in my own bed with the door shut,” Andretti recalled. “Of course, every TV station had the dramatic finish. It was overwhelming.

“When you lose by that small of a margin in a 500-mile race, there are 1,000 things that could have won that race. But in the closing laps, from the restart on it was flawless for me. I was flat out in turn 4 from before the green flag to the end of the race. I was timing traffic well, and I wouldn’t have changed anything I did. I haven’t slept very well since.”

Marco Andretti starts ninth in Sunday’s 91st Indy 500. His father, Michael, starts 12th, just one row behind his son as both look for their first win in this event.

They are two of the five drivers at Andretti Green Racing that will start in the Indy 500. Tony Kanaan starts in the middle of row 1 with Dario Franchitti on the outside of that row.

Danica Patrick, new to the team this year, starts in the middle of the third row.

All five want to beat each other on Sunday, but for Marco, it would bring some much needed redemption.

He could have become the first teenager to win the Indy 500 but still has two more years to break Troy Ruttman’s mark. Ruttman was 22 when he won the 1952 race.

“That part would have been absolutely amazing,” Andretti said. “We’ve got to win this thing to break that mark. It’s awesome that and it comes down to me being there at 19 years old and it comes down to my teammates. The three of them helped me so much and I did learn so much in a short period of time.”

Andretti believes the entire AGR team has more speed this year and hopes it will be enough to make up the difference and get him to victory lane.

But Marco admitted he understands the pain and anguish an Andretti goes through at the Indianapolis 500. He saw his father try to win Indy 15 times but with no luck. And his grandfather Mario only won one Indy 500 in a career where he believes he could have won it 10 times.

“I don’t think this place owes me one, but it does owe my father one,” Marco said. “I know the anguish my father went through because I was driving every lap with him.

“I want to win because I want to win; I don’t want to win for anything else, not for my family or for the media. That’s my thinking.”

Mario Andretti is a proud grandfather and believes both his son and grandson have outstanding chances to win the Indy 500.

“They all feel they have a decent setup to win the race and that is all you can hope for,” Mario said. “Marco is driven, no question about it. The beauty about Indianapolis is with his limited experience he gets a lot of seat time which is what he needs. He needs testing, he needs to learn the delicacy of the ovals.

“Indy last year proved again that the time he put to good use here was golden for the race.”

Mario, surprisingly, was happy last year even though Marco or Michael didn’t win.

“When you examine everything the way it went, it was a great day, a great drive for him,” Mario said. “He couldn’t have done anything different.”

Michael Andretti was five laps away from winning his first Indy 500 last year, but it was his son that blew by him in the first turn to take the lead.

Michael had a smile on his face, though, because he thought he was going to be able to watch his son accomplish something he couldn’t do.

That’s why it was so crushing to see Hornish take it away at the very end.

“It was borderline devastating on that cool-down lap,” Michael recalled. “I was in disbelief. I really thought he had won the race, especially when he did that beautiful move in turn 3, when Hornish almost hit the wall. He won. It was beautiful driving and he deserved it.

“Then Hornish had that lap out of nowhere. Where did he get that speed with 40 laps on his tires? He ran his quickest lap of the race on the last lap with that many laps on the tires were astounding to me. He did it and it’s a bummer.”

Hornish was the heavy, playing the bad guy in the Andretti drama.

“He has to think about that but I would have been pretty excited to finish second in any of my first six attempts here,” Hornish said. “He’s going to feel bad about it and nobody is going to say anything that makes him feel any differently about it.

“But if he runs every race here like he did last year, he will win more than one Indy 500s.”

Marco has returned, more driven and determined than ever to win the Indy 500 and put last year’s finish to rest once and for all. And he has a mindset that may help him achieve that goal.

“You have to get to the end of this thing to win it,” Marco said. “When lapped traffic gets in the way, last year I might have tried to go around them. This year I might wait another lap. But I will try to maximize everything I can in my power to win this race.”

Marco said when he should be sleeping, he’s laying in bed thinking about what can be done to make the car better.

Needless to say, he’s been a restless sleeper when he comes to the Indianapolis 500.