Photo Credit: IndyCar
Michael Andretti, owner of Andretti Autosport, is certainly smiling with how the Indianapolis 500 played out at the end. a
With a few laps to go Rossi and Bryan Herta, his strategist, made a gamble to stay out and not come into pit like everyone else in the field. It was the right call as Rossi ended up winning the epic race. This gives Andretti his fourth Indy 500 win as a team owner as he won the race in 2005 with the late Dan Wheldon, in 2007 with Dario Franchitti, 2014 with Ryan Hunter-Reay and now in 2016 with Rossi. Andretti also had his driver Carlos Munoz finish second as well.
“It’s amazing,” Andretti said. “At the start of the race, it looked really good. Ryan and Townsend were running really good up front. We thought they were going to be the guys to beat in the end. Unfortunately they had their problem in the pits there, which I could not believe. At that point I thought our day might have been over for a shot at winning. All of a sudden I watched the way Carlos and Alex were coming up through. Maybe they still have a shot at it.
“After that last pit stop, I knew that Alex was going to try it. We knew then, All right, if he’s going to try it, we’re going to try different strategies. It really worked out. We had two cars that had a shot at winning with two different strategies. So to come home 1-2 is just incredible. My hats off to Bryan Herta. He was the strategist there. Like I said, I think he used some of that NAPA know-how to get himself there to the end. They were on fumes at the end.”
“Alex did an awesome job at saving fuel, to the point where he’s pulling in the clutch and coasting. It just was crazy. It was amazing. I don’t know what to say. Great day. To be a part of history, to win the hundredth running, to win it with a 1-2 finish is incredible. I’m a bit speechless.”
Before May, Rossi had never even saw IMS much less raced on the famous oval. Until the beginning of March right before the start of the season Rossi was in Europe pursuing a ride in the Formula One series. He only had one other oval experience prior to the Indy 500 and that was the West Valley Desert Diamond Grand Prix of Phoenix a couple months back. So to have him come to this race and this track and watch him dominate like he did is just surprising.
“Absolutely,” Andretti added. “He had never seen this place till a couple months ago. He had no idea. He came in and was on pace, was not intimidated from the first lap on. Really went to school, used his teammates, learned every day throughout the month. I saw that he was very confident going into the race. I’m like, Hmm, who knows, we’ll see. He did a hell of a job. Kept his composure the whole race. Even when there were some problems, he still kept his head in the game.
“Like you say, I’m not surprised, but it’s still amazing to be a rookie and to win this race. I just heard a stat that a rookie won the first race, won the 50th race and now the hundredth race. Pretty crazy. He had no idea. He honestly had no idea.
“He was 100% Europe, the way he was training and everything. He never even saw an oval except for Phoenix before this. Impressive. Really impressive. Four strong partners all month long to help. I’m proud to say, every time we’ve had a rookie in our car, I think we’ve won Rookie of the Year, so…”
Herta praises Andretti for helping him get a car fielded for the complete 2016 IndyCar Series. He says if it weren’t for him that he would have been sitting at home watching the race on TV but instead he won it as a co owner.
“It’s been great.” Andretti quoted. “The partnership has been fantastic. We’ve always been good friends. It was great to have him back part of our family. Hopefully we’ll stay together for a long time.”
Andretti was the only IndyCar team to field 5 cars for the race.
“Absolutely.” Andrettie stated. “It’s one thing we’ve been able to do, is use the five cars to our advantage. You have that much more information throughout the month. Yeah, you know, it’s a great formula that we do have. We do a really good effort on that fifth car. It’s not a half-assed deal. It’s a winning effort. It just adds to it. It doesn’t take away at all.”
