Photo Credit: Shawn Gritzmacher/IndyCar
Marco Andretti was last at Phoenix International Raceway back in November when he took part in a test session. Andretti has returned this weekend as part of the promoter’s test ahead of their race in April.
“I love this place. I always have,” he said. “I even drove the old configuration back when I started, which makes me feel pretty old. That was like 2005. Yeah, I mean, a lot of fun so far. Really it’s a place that makes you work. In the middle of turn one in particular it gets pretty heavy.”
Andretti was asked his thoughts originally after the first session on Friday when he had posted the seventh quickest lap. He stated that it wasn’t a terrible start, but was went on to add that, “they’re putting up some pretty big times. We’re just trying to hang in there until we get the car to our liking.” By the second session, it looked as though they found what he was looking for, posting the quickest lap.
Andretti only has one goal in mind when the IndyCar series returns to Phoenix and that is to win. He states that a win is the one thing that is missing in his camp. Andretti hasn’t won a race since June 2011 when he won at Iowa so a win for him is long overdue.
If he picks up where he left off from last year that just might happen. He finished every race last year except for Pocono Raceway and he had two podium finishes. He says he doesn’t know what to expect with their superspeedway package yet but if they can close the gaps then they might have something amazing.
With the series returning to the speedway for the first time since 2005, there are concerns surrounding the race track conditions and when asked about it, Andretti expressed his concerns:
“It’s definitely too early to say that because I guess I have to run in the nighttime to see what happens with the track temps to give you a better answer on that,” he said before the night time session had actually taken place. “I think there’s a little room in one and two to get some clean air up high. It would be a little risky to do that in three and four. You could catch the right front in the marbles. The problem is the exit of one. You could run sort of maybe two wide entry to mid. But it tightens up pretty quick at the exit. The guy on the bottom is going to come up. He can’t hold the guys on the bottom. But I don’t know, having said that, halfway through the stint, the tires will go out, there will be some degradation, dirty air. It’s a little bit early to give you a full scoop on that.”
Andretti was also asked about the tires, in which he gave his thoughts based off what he experienced out on track.
“I think the track has gotten better as the rubber went down,” he said. “The track temps stabilized, then it got better. That’s why you saw the lap times went down there. We thought the quick track time would be in the morning. We got a lot of rubber down and seem to still be improving. So I don’t know. Yeah, I mean, I don’t know. I’m not sure yet.”
Marco Andretti and his fellow Verizon IndyCar Series drivers will get a chance to continue to test things out via a pair of sessions on track Saturday.
