An Andretti wins family’s first Indy 500 pole position in 33 years

INDIANAPOLIS — Marco Andretti was two months old the past time his venerable racing family led the subject to environmentally friendly at the Indianapolis 500. In this odd pandemic-plagued season, he finished a 33-year Andretti drought by winning the pole.

That darned “Andretti Curse” has haunted a few generations of racers at Indianapolis Motor Speedway due to the fact 1969, when Mario Andretti won his only Indy 500. Now his grandson, with a lightning-speedy and fearful 4 laps all around the speedway, has cleared the initially hurdle toward an elusive victory.

Mario Andretti was one for 29 in “The Biggest Spectacle in Racing,” with just a few vocation poles, his past in 1987. His son, Michael, never won a pole and his ideal finish in 16 tries was second in 1991. Jeff Andretti went for 3. John Andretti was for twelve and Marco now is for fourteen.

In his 15th try, he will try to finish that stupid family curse after and for all.

The past of nine motorists Sunday to make a qualifying operate, Marco Andretti logged a 4-lap common of 231.068 mph to bump five-time IndyCar winner Scott Dixon from the pole. Andretti apprehensive about the wind all morning and relied on tips his grandfather has long offered the racers of the family to obtain the bravery to keep it wide open for 4 laps all around one of the most well-known tracks in motorsports.

“The wind will scare you, but it will never crash you,” Marco Andretti said, quoting his grandfather immediately after his operate.

He seemed to have tears in his eyes and his palms appeared to briefly shake as driver immediately after driver congratulated him on pit lane. Then arrived a robust embrace with his father, proprietor of the 6 Andretti entries in the rescheduled Aug. 23 race.

“Obviously I was emotional. We put so substantially into it. This position means so substantially to us as a family,” Marco Andretti said. “We’ve just been by so several ups and downs at this position. Naturally my (late) cousin John is riding with me, my grandfather from house.

“We know family is pulling for us. We stay and breathe this activity, this race in particular.”

At his house in Pennsylvania, 80-year-old Mario Andretti said he was “never so nervous in my life” as he viewed his grandson’s operate on television.

“I’m happier now than I’ve at any time been,” Andretti said on NBC Sports. “I jumped so large I hit my head on the ceiling and it’s a 9-foot ceiling. He is aware of what he requirements to do to get the ideal out of the car and limit faults. He’s seriously centered on winning the 500.”

In a standard year, Marco Andretti would have been given a thunderous ovation immediately after his operate. But the coronavirus pandemic compelled new track proprietor Roger Penske to hold the gates closed for the initially time in the 104-year heritage of the race. Spectators showed even throughout the Excellent Depression, but this year, only a compact accumulating in a gravel parking great deal throughout the road from the speedway peeked by a fence opening between the grandstands as Andretti set a blistering pace.

“An Andretti on the pole at Indianapolis — too poor we could not hear the group explode,” teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay said. Workforce Penske’s motorists, viewing from inside the garage, ended up amid the rivals who celebrated Andretti’s moment.

The Andretti business experienced 4 of the nine places in Sunday’s shootout for the pole and a shot at sweeping the entrance row. But the speed the group showed Saturday dropped off for Hunter-Reay, James Hinchcliffe and Alexander Rossi, and it was Dixon at 231.051 mph who jumped to the major of the board.

“Man, I failed to imagine we experienced a possibility,” Michael Andretti said.

But his son saved it wide open in an effort of bravery in windy conditions on a warm racetrack. Marco Andretti was ninth in order, aware of the quantity Dixon experienced posted, and refused to flinch.

“Honestly Marco was the person I was hoping for for the reason that I imagine he deserved it,” said Dixon, who was defeat for the pole and later on spun throughout the Sunday afternoon practice.

“That’s a tough condition to go into, particularly remaining past up and everything is on the line. We threw up a first rate quantity. It wasn’t going to be easy to defeat.”

Andretti will sit on the entrance row alongside two previous Indy 500 winners. Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing capable second and Takuma Sato was 3rd for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

Rinus VeeKay, a 19-year-old rookie for Ed Carpenter Racing, was fourth and the only Chevrolet driver in the speedy nine. Hunter-Reay and Hinchcliffe crammed out the second row. Alex Palou, a rookie for Dale Coyne Racing, was seventh and will begin alongside Graham Rahal and Rossi.

Positions 10 by 33 ended up set in Saturday qualifying, when Honda dominated and Chevrolet struggled to match the exact same speed. It meant none of the 4 Workforce Penske entries experienced a possibility at the pole Sunday and reigning series winner Josef Newgarden in 13th is the greatest-setting up Penske driver. Defending race winner Simon Pagenaud commences 25th.

Marco Andretti, meanwhile, has a whole 7 days to absorb his pole-winning operate the strain will undoubtedly mount as he’s now the beloved to win the Indy 500. His family experienced suffered huge heartbreak at this track, the curse not able to be broken in fifty one decades.

“I’m hoping the Andretti curse will not exist in August,” he said.

___

More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/apf-AutoRacing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports