Andretti begins training for Indy 500

Andretti has announced that he will race for his Andretti Green Racing team in a fifth car in next May's event alongside his son Marco, recently signed to AGR for the full season.

And the 43 year-old has been doing all he can to get back into to physical shape for the gruelling 500 mile race.

"I've been hitting it pretty hard," Andretti said. "I've been really working out hard, eating right, doing all the stuff that I used to do.

"I'm getting there. I'm about halfway to the shape where I want to be. But I've been doing it now for a couple months. I think come race time, I'm definitely going to be there.

"We're going to be doing testing. Hopefully in January it's going to start. We're working mid-month hopefully to get us out there and get me some seat time again because it's going to take some time to get the dust off."

Despite being an IndyCar champion, Andretti has never won the sport's showpiece race, which was his main motivation for coming back for one last go.

"I never used to be obsessed with the 500, but I started to become near the end. It was like, 'Gee, what is it with this place?' I think winning it last year [as team manager to Dan Wheldon] definitely helped. I think it felt like finally the monkey's off the back.

"Finally, I'm going to be going there the month of May saying, 'What about the curse? blah blah blah.' That was a good feeling. It's going to be nice going there and now everybody will say, 'You were cursed as a driver.'

".I'm excited to get myself ready for that one race and have one go at it because that's something I feel I've missed in my career. Now I have another shot at trying to get it again. Now in doing that, it's gotten me, I've got to say, thoroughly pumped and excited. That's what it's about.

"I don't think it's more the passion of the driving, because it's really not the driving that I miss. "