Another Indy Heartbreak for Andretti

INDIANAPOLIS May 30, 2004; Paul Newberry writing for the AP reported that Michael Andretti propped himself up on the pit wall, staring glumly at the storm clouds collecting overhead. Another Indy heartbreak? You bet. Another case of the abysmal "Andretti Luck?" Michael wasn't buying it.

"It's not like luck beat us," Andretti said Sunday, conducting a familiar post-mortem in his garage at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. "When you get beat fair and square, you can accept it. When you dominate the race and something stupid happens, that's when it's hard to accept."

In his first year as a full-time car owner, Andretti watched his four drivers run near the front all day at the rain-plagued Indy 500. But they weren't quite strong enough to hold off Buddy Rice, who now has as many wins at the Brickyard as the entire Andretti clan.

Rubbing a little salt in the wound, Andretti Green Racing cars were running in the next three spots when a severe line of thunderstorms wiped out the final 20 laps of the 200-lap race. Tony Kanaan could only follow Rice across the finish line, about a half-car length behind as yellow and checkered flags waved above them. Dan Wheldon and Bryan Herta coasted across in the next two spots.

"We had a respectable race," Andretti said. "We finished second, third and fourth. We led a lot of laps. That's pretty good, I think. Not a lot of teams can say they've done that at this place."

The fourth Andretti driver, Dario Franchitti, had a punctured tire late in the race that knocked him back to 14th, the last car on the lead lap. All four of Andretti's drivers led at least one lap, led by Kanaan, who ran up front for 28.

But none of them were as strong as Rice, who started from the pole and led 91 laps.

"I've had way more disappointing moments than this," Andretti said. "I think we can win here. We've just got to do a little bit better job."

Michael's father, Mario, won at Indy in 1969 and spent the next quarter-century in a futile quest to take another sip of milk in Victory Lane. He usually had one of the strongest cars in the race -- leading 556 laps in his career -- but he was taken out time and time again by various misfortunes.

A broken engine part. An untimely wreck.

Mikey's Indy career took a similar path -- minus the victory. He led 426 laps at the Brickyard before retiring after last year's race. No one ran up front more without winning the event at least once. In fact, the second-generation Andretti led only two fewer laps than Rick Mears, who drove to a record-tying four wins.

Michael and Mario were in the pits when the skies opened up, just a bit too late for Andretti's team. There was a couple of brief windows of opportunity -- Kanaan inherited the lead on lap 151 when Bruno Junquiera went to the pits, but Rice blazed to the front just one lap later. When Rice made his final pit stop, Herta took the lead for two laps. But he had to come in for fuel, too, and Rice quickly got back in front.

That's where he stayed.

"If the rain had come 20 minutes earlier, we were looking good," Michael said. "But I knew if the rain didn't come, we weren't going to be able to hold him off."

Mario kept looking up at the darkening skies, wondering if his family might finally realize a bit of good fortune. If anyone deserved to win without having the strongest car, it was the Andrettis. This place certainly owed them one.

"I was afraid," Mario said, "that it was either going to be one of those races where the rain comes and we have euphoria, or where the rain comes and we say, 'Oh, no.' It was, 'Oh, no.'"

He ducked under a tent in the paddock, escaping the downpour that swept through the speedway after the race was called. Michael's 16-year-old son, Marco, grabbed a seat in a nearby golf cart. He's a racer, too, looking forward to the day when he gets his shot to change the Andretti Luck.

"Marco is here," Mario said, smiling weakly as he pointed toward his grandson. "He's young. Maybe everything will change with him. Maybe it will be easy for him. Some drivers just come here and everything clicks."

Marco's Indy debut is still a few years away. In the meantime, his father and grandfather will carry the banner, unwilling to yield no matter how many times they fall short.

"Never, never, never," Mario said, grabbing his umbrella and heading off to dinner with his son.