Andretti Brings NYSE Car Home 14th at Texas

FORT WORTH, Texas (June 10, 2006) -Marco Andretti battled an ill-handling car throughout the race but managed to bring the #26 NYSE car home in 14th place Saturday night at the IndyCar Series Bombardier Learjet 500k at Texas Motor Speedway.

Andretti, starting the event from ninth place on the starting grid, found the car to be sliding in the turns from the early stages of the event. The race, which featured two caution periods, didn't lend itself to yellow flag stops under which to make major changes to the car's handling. As such, the NYSE team attempted to better the car during its green flag stops, with limited success. Helio Castroneves took the victory with Scott Dixon second, Dan Wheldon third, Sam Hornish Jr. fourth and Scott Sharp fifth.

Through six events of the 2006 season, Andretti stands 12th in the driver point standings but is just four points shy of 11th place Dario Franchitti and seven points behind ninth-place Bryan Herta and Danica Patrick.

Next up for Andretti and the entire IndyCar Series will be the SunTrust Indy Challenge on Saturday, June 24 at Richmond International Raceway. The event will be televised live by ESPN2, beginning at 8 p.m. (EDT). It can also be heard live by XM Satellite Radio subscribers by tuning into XM channel 145.

Marco Andretti, #26 NYSE Dallara/Honda/Firestone:

"The NYSE car just wasn't handling good tonight. This was the longest race of my career and hopefully it will be the longest race of my career. When your car isn't handling good on either end it just makes for a very long day."

Kyle Moyer, General Manager, Andretti Green Racing:

"We didn't give Marco a very good car tonight and there wasn't much help from anyone else. All the other drivers kept their noses clean so there weren't many yellows. We couldn't work anything to Marco's advantage and the car just wasn't there tonight. Still, he brought it home."


2006 Bombardier Learjet 500k Results
Pos.    Name            Laps         Pos.      Name             Laps
1     Helio Castroneves 200           11      Bryan Herta       199
2     Scott Dixon       200           12      Danica Patrick    199
3     Dan Wheldon       200           13      Dario Franchitti  199
4     Sam Hornish Jr.   200           14      Marco Andretti    199
5     Scott Sharp       200           15      Jeff Simmons      198
6     Vitor Meira       200           16      Felipe Giaffone   197
7     Tony Kanaan       200           17      Eddie Cheever Jr. 197
8     Kosuke Matsuura   200           18      Buddy Rice         70
9     Ed Carpenter      200           19      Buddy Lazier       56
10    Tomas Scheckter   199