Saturday,
May 26, 2007
Andretti's
at the Indy 500; First Family of Frustration
The
ANNOTICO Report
Five
family members (Mario, son Michael, son Jeff, nephew John, grandson Marco) have
made a combined 55 Indy 500 starts and led more than 1,000 laps but have won
only once.
They
have dominated, electrified and charmed the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, only
to suffer more and longer-running heartbreak than any other bloodline.
The
Andrettis' only rivals among famous families here,
the Unsers, at least have the satisfaction of nine
500 wins among the three of them.
Mario led more laps here, 556, than two of Indy's three four-time winners, A.J.
Foyt and Rick Mears.
Among father-son drivers, Mario and Michael have led more laps here by far,
1,086, than Al Unser Sr. and Al Unser
Jr. with 754. But the elder Unser won here four
times, the younger twice.
But
it was last year that the frustration turned to
agony. Exiting the Final Turn, of the Final Lap, Marco, a 19 year old rookie
led. Surely within seconds he would become the youngest winner here. Three
years younger than Troy Ruttman in 1952.
Since
the first Indy 500 in 1911, there had NEVER been a pass on the last LAP, let
alone on the HOMESTRETCH, let alone right at the Checkered Flag!!!!!
Marco
could have blocked Sam Hornish, at the last second,
who in a faster car was coming like a train. But there would have been a big
freaking accident, with Marco into the tower at
200 miles per hour.
I
say he should have !!!! This is the Indy 500, not a
School Zone!
What's
in for the Andretti's on Sunday?
Oddsmakers have Weldon, Castronoves,
Hornish,
Incidentally,
Dana Patrick is right behind at 25-1.
Five
family members have made a combined 55 Indy 500 starts and led more than 1,000
laps but have won only once.
Marco's
late fade last year added to a legacy of heartbreak.
By
Ed Hinton, Special to The Times
May 25, 2007
Still, the memory seized 20-year-old Marco just the other day
? just as it has "a couple of times a day,
every day since," he said.
"We just lost the biggest race in the world."
He spoke as if it had happened minutes earlier.
"This was right in his grasp," said Mario Andretti,
still hurting for his grandson.
"I mean, it just really bothers you ? you
know?" said Michael Andretti, who last year, for
a fleeting moment, was so sure his son had won that he pumped his fist in the
air from his own cockpit at 220 mph, running third just behind Marco and Sam Hornish Jr.
Exiting the final turn of the final lap, Marco, a 19-year-old rookie, led.
Surely, within seconds, he would become the youngest winner here, three years
younger than Troy Ruttman in 1952.
Since the fi rst
The
But it remains
Preparing to make only his second 500 start in Sunday's 91st running, Marco
already is burdened by an enormous sense of opportunity lost.
"I think even if we end up winning here, [last year] is still going to bug
me," he said. "You've got to take advantage of every opportunity you
can."
He bases that on family history. He will run again as a teammate to his father,
who'll ma ke his 16th ? and final, Michael says ? attempt
to break his own almost legendary run of awful luck here.
The Andrettis' only rivals among famous families
here, the Unsers, at least have the satisfaction of
nine 500 wins among the three of them.
Five Andrettis have 55 Indy starts, including Mario's
other son, Jeff, and nephew John. Mario led more laps here, 556, than two of
Indy's three four-time winners, A.J. Foyt and Rick
Mears.
Among father-son drivers, Mario and Michael have led more laps here by far,
1,086, than Al Unser Sr. and Al Unser
Jr. with 754. But the elder Unser won here four
times, the younger twice.
For all of this, the Andrettis have but one Indy win to show: Mario's in 1969.
Still they deny, even bristle at, the term "the Andretti
Curse."
Whatever it is, Marco was about to break it. About to ?
"Now there's going to be a shootout," Mario recalls thinking,
standing in the pits. "Hornish was lurking right
there. What made me nervous was that I figured, 'He's going to come like a
train.' Which is what he did."
Marco knew Hornish had a faster car, from the fabled
stable of longtime family friend but nemesis Roger Penske, the team owner who
had already won this race 13 times with nine drivers.
But Marco had a half-straightaway lead as they took the white flag signaling
the final lap, and knew "a last-lap pass is really unheard of here."
And any time in this race, "if a leader is leading out of Turn 4, you
hardly ever see him get passed by the time you get to the start-finish
line."
All that sorrow. All those years. Marco hurtled at 220
mph toward making up for so much.
Since he was 5, in 1992, he had experienced the Andretti
anguish. Indeed, '92 had been the family's worst Indy 500 ever.
"That was a horrible day," Marco recalled just the other day, again
as if it had just happened.
His Nonno Mario (Grandpa Mario, in the familial
Italian) crash ed terribly
and suffered severe foot injuries. Uncle Jeff crashed even worse, suffering
career-ruining injuries to his feet and lower legs.
But Michael led, running away, pressing on, anguishing, not
knowing the condition of his father and brother.
"I knew. I knew," Marco said of it all.
Even at 5, he was monitoring television and radio, and even the team radio
channel.
"I definitely knew they were hurt. Jeff's case was definitely more severe.
"And they wouldn't tell Dad anything, which was making me so mad. Dad's
asking, 'Tell me! Tell me!' and they wouldn't tell him anything on the radio.
"And here he is, leading the race and not knowing if his brother is even
alive."
Michael had led 160 of the first 189 laps and was pulling farther and farther
away when, with 11 laps of the 200 left, a small belt broke on the engine. His
car rolled to a stop in the grass inside the fourth turn.
After that, "I followed him everywhere and just sat there and listened and
watched," Marco said.
"Dad went to the hospital to see them afterwards. He'd just wanted to tell
them he'd won the race for them. And he couldn't even do that, to top it all
off."
Al Unser Jr., in a car far inferior to Michael's, won
the race in the closest finish in 500 history, after longshot
Scott Goodyear, who'd started last, pulled almost alongside coming to the line,
but couldn't get past at the checkered flag.
In 2006 would come the second closest, but more electrifying.
Surely, Marco thought, he could hold on as Unser had.
Nobody passed on the last lap, off the fourth turn.
"What I did was bait [Hornish] to the inside,
thinking he didn't have enough speed," Marco said. "I knew he was fast ? but he beat me by a car
length. That just caught me by surprise."
Theoretically Marco could have blocked Hornish at the
last second.
"There would have been a freaking big accident," Mario said. "T
here's no way Sam would have backed off."
"If I had moved over, maybe I could have ended up in the tower at 200
mph," Marco said. "That's not the way I want to win the Indy
500."
Mario again: "The 'experts' tell me, 'Oh, Mario, if you had been in that
car you would have made it wide,' and all that. You know what? I was most proud
of Marco for making his split-second decision not to block when he saw Sam
coming."
Oh, well. At least Marco made the Indy 500 memorable again.
"Yeah," said his father. "Unfortunately we're on the wrong end
of it?. That's the way it goes."
Ed Hinton covers motor racing for Tribune newspapers.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition/
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