Photo Credit: Shawn Gritzmacher/IndyCar
ARTICLE CO-WRITTEN BY CARRIE ELLIS AND STACEY WEIMER
The Andretti name is often thought of when anyone mentions the Indianapolis 500, but it’s not always a good thing. Most of the time it is about the Andretti Curse.
The Andretti Curse came about because out of the five Andretti’s that have raced, there only one has actually won the race and that was Mario Andretti in 1969.
Mario has 30 starts in the Indy 500 which includes his win, six top-fives and 11 top-10’s. Michael Andretti and Jeff Andretti, sons of Mario, followed in dad’s footsteps and got into racing. Michael has 16 starts for the 500 with no wins, five top-fives and nine top-10s, while Jeff has five starts in the 500 with no wins and no top-fives or top-10’s. John Andretti, who is Mario’s nephew, has had 12 starts at the 500 with no wins, one top-five and four top tens. Marco Andretti, son to Michael, has 10 starts to the 500 with no wins, four top-fives and seven top-10’s.
So between five different drivers and three generations, there has only been one win in 73 combined starts between them all.
It hasn’t been without close calls to victory as the family has experienced a lot of heartache at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the past. In 1992, Jeff was involved in a horrible wreck that would end his racing career. Thankfully he survived it, but as it happened his brother Michael was leading the race; however something broke in his car and he didn’t win. Then nine years later in 2006, which was Marco’s Rookie year, Marco was leading the race with his dad Michael in second with one lap to go. As they approached the start-finish line, Sam Hornish came out of nowhere and beat Marco to the bricks winning the race.
While he enters this weekend feeling confident, Marco has not had the best 2016 season thus far. In the five races so far, he has posted a best qualifying effort of 11th in the Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix, with a best finish of 12th in the Grand Prix of Alabama.
After the GP of Indy was over, he quickly switched gears to prepare for the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500. Practice began on May 16 and in that first one, despite the struggles so far this year, the Nazareth native was the fastest. The rest of the week he was in the top-10 in the practices prior to qualifications.
Unfortunately, qualifications didn’t go as he hoped as he was bumped out of the top-10 on day one of qualifications just as time expired, and qualified 14th during the session on the Sunday.
“Qualifying without fifth gear is not easy,” Marco quoted. “All I can say is I hope we are getting our (bad) luck out of the way before this race.”
On May 23, they had one final practice before Carb day with Marco 13th fastest in that practice. He then headed off to New York for the Indy 500 Media day. During the different events he participated in for Media day, Marco was smiling and you could tell he had a lighter attitude, a big difference to years past.
“I ride with my guys – we could start this race 33rd and I’m going in as confident as ever,” Marco said. “Yeah, we could’ve been top nine or even pole contenders, but we’ve been up against it all week- a different problem every time we come out.”
Marco is ready to take on whatever may face him during the race. He has really upped his physical approach to the race by boxing among his running and other exercise routines he does. He has also prepared himself mentally.
“But we’re ready to battle and the way I look at it is like having a bad first pit stop in the race, even if you’re on pole,” Marco added. “We just have to keep battling. We’re looking to do what (Juan Pablo) Montoya did last year and Ryan (Hunter-Reay) did the year before that. That’s the goal.”
