Andretti pole win an emotional ride
INDIANAPOLIS – You would have thought Mario Andretti had just stepped out of the car himself, amped up with endless energy, yet nearly speechless.
The voice of the always-talkative 80year-old patriarch of racing’s most famous family was at a different pitch, his excitement for his grandson seeping through the phone all the way from the family’s lake house. A place normally meant for relaxation was, instead, an escape for the former driver who raced 29 times at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and came away with one win, three poles and loads of disappointment.
With Marco Andretti flashing the most consistent top-end speed all week long and positioned with the final qualifying run Sunday during the Fast Nine Shootout, his grandfather was already more than proud.
But nervous too.
“There’s nothing you can do, except hope and pray,” he told Indystar after the younger Andretti clinched the pole for the Indy 500 on Aug. 23. “I’d never been so nervous in my entire life, but there was never anything more rewarding than today, to see Marco do his thing and the way he did it. I felt so helpless. But now, I’m so proud.
“He’s got the talent beyond what his record says, and he showed something today we all knew was always there, but he had to show it. I think this is a big turnaround for him in his career, I really do.”
IMS had always been a bittersweet second home for the Andretti family the last half-decade. After Mario’s back-toback poles in 1966-67, he emerged victorious in 1969 to spark the third of his four series championships. Five more times, the elder Andretti would start on the front row for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, but never again would his famous grin land on the side of the Borgwarner trophy.
Since 1987, the year Mario led 170 of the first 177 laps after starting on the pole, only for his engine to fail him, no one from the Andretti family had taken home the P1 award the Sunday before the biggest race in the world.
Until Sunday, when the man who nearly won it all as a teenager, and whose career has been mired in mediocrity ever since, pulled off the almost unthinkable. Indycar’s 2020 it-man Scott Dixon, who won the series’ first three races of the year and holds a commanding lead entering this year’s Indy 500, threw down two laps in the 231s and comfortably sat atop the leaderboard as Andretti prepared for his run.
Since a close call in 2006, his rookie debut in the Indy 500, the youngest Andretti has won just twice – later that season at Sonoma and in 2011 at Iowa.
It’s why Marco wasn’t just disappointed, but angry, immediately following that last-second pass from Sam Hornish Jr. in the final couple of yards of the 200th lap in 2006.
“I knew when I lost the 500, you saw me mad ’cause I knew it was possible I’d be talking to you guys in 15 years without having won one yet,” he said.
“And when you have struggles, it makes it all worth it when you have days like today. It’s been brutal.”