Andretti fired up for Indy return

Andretti and his CART team owner Barry Green made the announcement of their entry on Tuesday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Andretti made 11 Indianapolis starts between 1984 and 1995, with a best finish of second in 1991. The 38-year-old is CART's active career leader with 40 Champ Car race wins, but none have come at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a track where his father Mario was able to win only once during his long career.

The political battle between the CART and Indy Racing League for open-wheel supremacy in America has kept Michael away since he led 45 laps at Indy before crashing out in 1995.

"I'm very excited to return to Indianapolis," Andretti commented. "It's been a long time, but when I signed for Barry and Motorola to drive in the CART series, he promised me he'd do all he could do to race at Indianapolis. I think he¹s put together a great effort, a winning effort. It was a huge undertaking, but Barry and everyone involved knew how bad I wanted to do this race and they worked extra-hard to make it happen.

"I¹m tickled to death to be back, and I think we have a real good shot of doing well - it may be my best shot ever."

Team boss Green confirmed that Andretti's long-rumoured Indy deal has been an on-again, off-again proposition for the past few months. Green and his brother Kim, who serves as Team Green¹s general manager, have denied the organisation was planning an Indianapolis assault all the while.

"We must not let this program affect our CART program," Green stated. "I've sort of been off in the wings trying to get the sponsorship together. Michael finally got the word that it was signed and sealed when he was in the cockpit of the car waiting for the warm-up in Mexico. I gave him a thumbs-up, he gave me a thumbs-up in return, and then he went out and drove a good race to finish fourth."

Team Green has entered an agreement with IRL frontrunner Panther Racing for a supply of chassis and engines, and Panther's engineering team, led by Andy Brown, will provide set-up assistance. Andretti tested a Panther Dallara-Aurora at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday and Monday and was encouraged by his introduction to the IRL machinery.

"It went really well," Michael said. "It's quite different from the Champ Car, and after a few laps I thought, 'This is gonna be tough.' But we started working on it, and Andy Brown and Steve Newey, who will be my engineer at Indy, meshed really well. By the end of the first day, the car felt good, and we were really fast on the second day. I came away with a really strong feeling that we have a strong combination."

The month of May will be packed for Andretti and key Team Green personnel. They'll compete in the CART race at Nazareth on May 6, then fly to Indianapolis to practice for five days prior to Pole Weekend qualifying. Then it's straight off to Japan for another CART race.

"I've already received guarantees that the weather will be perfect in Nazareth, Indianapolis and Japan," Andretti joked.

Michael Andretti admits that he experienced a range of emotions when he watched his Champ Car rival Juan Montoya dominate the 2000 Indianapolis 500.

Andretti's car owner at the time Carl Haas was vehement in his desire not to support the Indianapolis 500 and the Indy Racing League, which was one reason the star driver was happy to split with Newman/Haas Racing to join Team Green this year.

"It was really tough, especially the last couple of years," said the 38-year-old, who last raced at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1995, the last year before the CART/IRL rift. "That's because it was starting to feel like I would never get back there.

"Last year, I found out early on that Ford didn't want any of its teams to go to Indy. It was really tough watching Juan because I felt we could have been right there keeping him honest."