Andretti Comes Up Just Short Again

INDIANAPOLIS —  As a driver here in the Indianapolis 500, Michael Andretti finished second, third twice and fourth in his 14 tries.

As an owner here, on his second try Sunday, Andretti finished second, third and fourth, all at once.

As a driver, he never won here, often, in the best -- or worst -- traditions of the Andretti family in the 500, losing under excruciating circumstances. Except for 1969, when his dad, Mario, won, one of the most recognizable families in open-wheel racing has fared poorly at Indianapolis, to the point where the call of “Andretti is slowing on the backstretch!” became a race staple, applicable to either father or son, sometimes both.

As an owner, Michael’s mantra has been, “Maybe I wasn’t meant to win as a driver. But maybe I’m meant to win 10 times as an owner.”

For a while there, about the middle of the race, things looked really promising for owner Andretti and victory No. 1. Three of his Dallara-Hondas, driven by Brazilian Tony Kanaan, Englishman Dan Wheldon and American Bryan Herta, were running first, second and fourth, and Buddy Rice, the early race leader, had stalled his G Force-Honda trying to get out of his pit, dropping to eighth place.

In the end, though, speed carried the day for Rice.

“There was nothing at that time threatening,” he said. “We knew we had at least two more stops before anything was going to remotely happen with the weather at that time. So I wasn’t concerned. There was no reason to panic.”

Still, to get back to the front, he needed to concern himself with the Andretti-Green cars. Then, after catching them, he quickly put them behind him.

Showing off his speed, he passed Wheldon first, then Kanaan, diving inside going into Turn 1, and was running first during a rainy caution period when the race was flagged 50 miles from the scheduled finish.

Andretti, through Kanaan, Wheldon and Herta, finished second, third and fourth.

So, was this another dose of Andretti bad luck?

Or something to be really proud of?

“It wasn’t like luck beat us,” Andretti said. “They beat us. We didn’t do a good enough job. Two, three and four is not too bad. It just isn’t good enough.

“I think we did a respectable job. I know a lot of other teams would be glad to finish second, third and fourth. Buddy was just faster. Even when we were looking good, I could see him coming. The rain just didn’t come quick enough. We needed the rain to come 20 minutes earlier.

“When you get beat fair and square, you can accept it. When you dominate a race and something stupid happens, that’s hard to accept. I can accept this. I’ve had way more disappointing moments. I’m disappointed we didn’t win, but we did a good job. We just needed to do it a little bit better. I think we’re going to win here.”

Kanaan and Wheldon were disappointed too, but said they’d had a great time through it all. Not so much trying to hold off, then chasing Rice, but racing each other.

At the end of one caution period, while they were running one-two, Wheldon swept outside and passed Kanaan going into Turn 1.

Then, three laps later, Kanaan got the nose of his car under Wheldon’s and passed him for the lead at the same spot where Wheldon had made his move.

Kanaan said, “In my point of view, this race needs to be won by the best car and the best driver and I think it happened today. I don’t think we had the car to win the race.

“[But it was a] fun race. I never had so much fun in my life with a teammate that I had with Dan today. I tell you, you know winning races is important, and winning championships, but ... when you can get out on the track and fight that hard between each other and still get out of the car and be able to laugh about it, for me, it’s priceless.”

Wheldon agreed: “It’s like Tony said. Probably that was my most enjoyable race ever. We went into it -- a couple of times really hard with one another -- but left each other enough room so that we could do that. It was a lot of fun.

“[As a team,] I think we did an absolutely fantastic job. Three of the top four speaks volumes for Andretti-Green Racing.”

And, with just a little more speed, it could have been even better. As it is, Andretti -- and Kanaan, Wheldon and crew -- still have something to shoot for.