Andretti's Indy return

Hard to believe Andretti hasn't raced at the most fabled race course in the world in five years.

Andretti arrived at the Indianapolis 500 ready to continue the family legacy that has been put on hold since CART quit over the creation of the rival Indy Racing League, which began operation in 1996. He is driving an IRL car prepared by Panther Racing, but operated by Team Green, Andretti's CART team.

Andretti's Dallara-Oldsmobile Aurora was 19th out of 32 drivers in 39 cars that took practice laps on Monday before rain ended the session in the middle of the afternoon. His quickest average speed was 217.636 miles per hour around the 2.5-mile oval.

There is more work ahead for Andretti this week as he tries to get up to speed and qualify for the Indianapolis 500 for the first time since 1995.

"I think the goals were to just get settled in a little bit," Andretti said. "We had a little bit to go by with what [Panther Racing team mate] Sam Hornish Jr did on Sunday, we started there and had the same problems he did. He went one step further and made his car better. We were going that way and we got caught with the rain.

"We are right in there. A couple of changes here and there and you are in the top 10. We are going to be chipping away at it all week. Once you pull out onto the race track, it's just the way it was the last time I was here. It wasn't any different."

Andretti's team has devised a meticulous schedule for the week, utilising the seven hours of practice time each day at the Speedway leading up to Saturday's Pole Qualifications. Time is important for Andretti, who has to depart for Japan early Monday morning to compete in the CART race at Twin Ring Motegi on May 19.

That means Andretti's operation can't afford any weather problems like the late afternoon thunderstorms that deluged the Speedway in the first two days of practice.

"It messes you up a little bit," he said. "I'm hoping it doesn't do this too much during this week. Our time is going to be very important to us because we don't have the luxury of next week. We have to take advantage of every moment we have, so losing the couple of hours we lost today didn't help us any."

Andretti is getting used to the IRL car, which features nearly 300 less horsepower than the engine he uses in CART. The IRL car also has much more downforce than the CART car.

"It's really different," he smiles. "The CART car has a ton of horsepower and it's like trying to tame a wild bronco. Here, it's a bit more spread out, a car with less horsepower and a car that is a little bit different to drive with the weight of the engine. It feels a bit different. But I'm used to that sort of thing because of all the different tracks we run on in CART. It's no big deal, you get used to it in just a few laps."

When Andretti announced on March 27 that he would return to the Indianapolis 500, he was joining fellow CART teams Marlboro Team Penske and Target/Chip Ganassi Racing. That meant Andretti, Gil de Ferran, Helio Castroneves, rookies Bruno Junqueira and Nicolas Minassian would be representing CART in this year's race.

That changed on Monday, however, as team owner Chip Ganassi parked his two drivers in favor of the more-experienced Jimmy Vasser and NASCAR Winston Cup star and former IRL champion Tony Stewart.

"It's going to be really tough competition," Andretti said. "I definitely wasn't kidding myself coming here. I don't think anybody was on this team. We know it's going to be a hard fight. You have the IRL regulars who know these cars very well and then you have the best that CART has to offer coming as well. Tony Stewart is going to be in really good CART car. He hasn't gone on to bigger things in NASCAR Winston Cup, just different things in Winston Cup. He's another guy we have to beat. He has put himself together with a pretty good team, so mark him up as another guy we have to beat.

"It's going to be tough. We are going to fight as hard as we can. I want this thing really bad. We are with a really good team. I think the Panther team has shown they can win races. We're going to be one of guys you have to beat to win."

Andretti believes the IRL regulars understand how to set up the race car for a full 500 miles, while the CART veteran is trying to determine that this week in practice. He is also working with different engineers from the ones he uses in CART.

"We have Andy Brown from Panther and we were lucky enough to get Steve Newey to come over from my CART team," he said. "We all speak the same language because they are good engineers, they are racers and they have tons of experience.

"I'm hoping my experience in the race will pay off. You always have a lot of guys who run fast early and a group of guys who get it right for the end of the race. That's what it's all about. Having said that, Juan Pablo Montoya came in and did what he did last year so he figured it out quickly. I hope my experience helps and the experience we have on our racing team will help and that will help out at the end of the day."

Andretti tested the IRL car at Homestead, Florida in March and at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway last month in windy conditions. He believes the IRL machines are a bit of a throwback to the cars he drove at Indy in 1986 and 1987.

"I think we have about the same amounts of horsepower as we did then and the same amount of downforce as we did then," he muses. "That's a fair comparison. The last time I was here, we were in the 230-mile an hour range. We were going way too fast. That was one of the big concerns I wasn't happy about coming here then. I think the formula they have now is better for this race track, for sure."

Andretti has some haunted memories of near misses at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He has led 382 laps in the Indianapolis 500 - the most of any driver who has never won the race.

Three in particular stand out - 1992, when Andretti led 160 laps and had a huge lead with 11 laps to go when a fuel pressure problem killed his engine. That was also a day when his younger brother, Jeff, crashed hard into the second turn wall when a wheel hub sheared off, badly breaking his legs. Doctors wrestled with the decision to amputate before lengthy surgery was performed to repair Andretti's legs. His father, Mario, also crashed in that race and suffered broken toes when his car slammed into the fourth turn wall on a restart because of cold tires.

"There was probably not a worse day in my life, professionally and personally," he recalls. "Professionally, with the engine quitting so close to the win. Personally, with Jeff getting so seriously hurt and my dad also in the hospital. That was a bad day."

The other disappointment came in 1989 when Andretti led 35 laps and was in the lead on lap 163 before his engine blew up on the frontstretch.

"That was another race we had won, but unfortunately the engine broke near the end of the race," he shrugs.

The other near-miss came in 1991 when Andretti was the fastest driver in the race, leading six times for 97 laps, but was passed by Rick Mears on the outside of the first turn on lap 188 - 12 laps from the finish. Andretti finished second and Mears became the third four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500.

"We dominated the race, had him almost a lap down, then I had a flat tyre," Andretti said. "If I didn't have a flat tyre, he would have been a lap down and he wouldn't have been in that position to win the race. Those are the three that stick out in my head."

Those are the ghosts that Andretti hopes to conquer in this year's Indianapolis 500.

"I'm very happy I have that experience in the bank and I'm going to draw a lot of that out on race day, for sure," he said. "Hopefully, it's going to work for me.

"My feelings for this race have changed a lot. When you are involved in something, you don't realise what you have until you've lost it. After experiencing five years of loss by not being here, I definitely appreciate it a lot more than I did when I was here the last time. The intensity is so hard. I'm working my butt off to race here."