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Tuesday, March 27
Andretti almost ran IRL full time
By Jack Arute
ESPN.com
Michael Andretti's return to the Indianapolis 500 this year was finally confirmed in a news conference Tuesday. The Nazareth, Pa., driver will get behind the wheel of the No. 39 Motorola/Archipelago Dallara.
Andretti's team draws upon personnel from his CART effort as well as from Phoenix IRL winner, Sam Hornish Jr.'s Panther Racing operation. Simon Morley is the chief mechanic, with John Barnes as team manager.
|  | | Michael Andretti will steer the No. 39 Motorola/Archipelago Dallara in this year's Indianapolis 500. |
"Last year we really began to investigate both sides, CART and the IRL," Andretti said. "We started to really understand what the IRL was all about and sort of like the direction that they're going in.
"I think that a lot of things they are doing are right and we all have to come to the realization that there's always going to be two series and the IRL's side of it is that they are not going to try and compete with us. The IRL wants to be the oval series of America and in CART we are the international series that runs on all different types of race tracks."
When Andretti was released by Newman/Haas Racing at the end of last year, he says he thought seriously about a full time IRL ride for 2001.
"We talked to several IRL teams and actually came close to doing a deal with one before we came to a deal (for CART) with Barry Green," Andretti said.
Andretti apologized for the "tough talk" he originally engaged in when the IRL was formed.
"It was probably more emotion than anything," he said. "Knowing that I wasn't going to be at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway."
This will be Andretti's 12th Indy 500 effort. A race won only once (1969) by his father Mario and where Michael's best finish is a second in 1991. He has led more laps than any driver (328) who has never won the famed event.
"I feel like I have some unfinished business at this place," Michael said.
Andretti doesn't think it will take too long for him to acclimate himself to the IRL car. He already has logged some laps in Panther Racing's car at Homestead, Fla., and is scheduled for his first Indy test on Easter Sunday.
"The team (Panther) has a pretty good set up for Indy," Andretti said. "They ran pretty well there last year so we should be able to be OK, I think.
"Doing those two days at Homestead really helped a lot. I'm sure that it shouldn't take that at Indy."
Andretti's May will be a hectic one.
"I know," he chuckled. "I don't even want to think about it."
His team will miss the first two days of practice at the Speedway due to CART's scheduled race at his hometown Nazareth Speedway. He will arrive Monday, May 7, to prepare for Pole Day on Saturday.
"Of course, the weather is going to be beautiful in Nazareth, so we don't have to worry about a rainout," he said.
Andretti's Indy experience is tightly choreographed.
"We hope to get the car in the field the first day, so that we can work on race setups on Sunday, because we leave the next day for Japan," he said.
CART runs their Firestone Firehawk 500 on Motegi, Japan's 1.59-mile oval on May 19, leaving Team Motorola with a final shakedown opportunity on Indy's traditional "Carb Day" on Thursday, May 24.
The addition of Andretti to Indy's entry list means the 85th edition of the race will include an Unser (Al Unser Jr., a two-time Indy 500 champ), a Mears (Casey Mears, nephew to Indy 500 champ Rick Mears) and both CART and IRL champions -- Gil deFerran and Buddy Lazier. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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