He’s Late-Comer to Andretti Party

INDIANAPOLIS —  Dan Wheldon won the Indianapolis 500, Tony Kanaan won the pole and Dario Franchitti led 15 laps Sunday. So what about the forgotten member of the Andretti Green team, Bryan Herta?

All the 35-year-old from Valencia did was close fast to finish third and give Michael Andretti two of the first three finishers and put a close to the “Andretti Curse” at Indy.

For the first 170 laps, Herta was never better than 11th and once was penalized for speeding in pit lane, before fuel strategy by Andretti and crew chief George Klotz got him close to the lead at the end. When Danica Patrick had to slow to conserve enough fuel to finish, Herta passed her seconds before the caution flag froze the finishing order.

“I didn’t want to see that yellow at the end because I thought I might make something happen,” Herta said. “I finally got in a position when I could go full rich there, and I could race with those guys the last five laps. As soon as we did, we were right with them, so I just needed a little more time and a little more fuel.

“We came here to go 1-2-3-4, but this is such a tough place I’m just really happy we got a top-three finish and the team won. If I can’t win, I definitely want the team to win it. That’s what we work as hard for.”

Herta said, however, that he, Kanaan and Franchitti were tired of Wheldon monopolizing the team’s glory, having won four of the last five IRL races.

“He’s definitely got the three of us riled up to go out and beat him in two weeks in Texas because he’s starting to get to be a bit of a trophy hog,” he said.

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Buddy Lazier’s day wasn’t as good as in 1996, when he won, but he wasn’t complaining about his fifth-place finish in his Panther Racing Dallara-Chevrolet.

Something broke on his car Friday, just as he was getting up to speed for the final practice, and his car was heavily damaged when he scraped the wall. His crew spent 17 hours repairing it so he wouldn’t have to start from the back.

He ran in the top 10 most of the race, then had a bit of a collision with Scott Sharp late in the race and broke his car’s left front wing.

“Top-five finish, that’s really good,” he said. “I’m happy with that. ... We didn’t want to come in [after the contact with Sharp], we didn’t want to lose track position, and then we had contact again with another car blocking me. So without the contacts, I think I would have been able to make a better run of it at the end.”

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Sebastien Bourdais, the Champ Car World Series champion from France, got his first taste of racing at Indy with the IRL and found the experience at least a little harrowing.

“The race was really crazy and wild,” he said. “I should have been taken out five times before I was. Accidents happened right in front of me and I was able to avoid them. ... I had a lot to learn.”

Bourdais was running fifth when his car slid up the track and hit the wall in the fourth turn on the third-to-last lap.

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Former winner Kenny Brack, seriously injured a year and a half ago and subbing for last year’s injured winner, Buddy Rice, made it almost to the halfway mark, completing 99 of the 200 laps before being sidelined with a mechanical failure.

“A little part took us out of the race,” he said. “I felt the steering wheel twisting. At first, I thought the track was just slippery but then I knew something was wrong. ... So I pulled into the pits and the link in the steering column came loose. I don’t remember the last time that happened.”

Brack had been the fastest qualifier but started 23rd because he hadn’t qualified on pole day. He never ran among the leaders but was satisfied with his effort.

“Considering the short time to come here and get ready, we had a good Indy 500,” he said. “I was confident with the car. I hadn’t raced an Indy car in 19 months but it all came back to me and I felt racy today.”