By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter
Marco Andretti is feeling rather chipper heading into tonight’s Firestone 600.
The 29-year-old American set the third quickest lap overall and was the quickest Honda in this evening’s 10-minute practice session.
The Andretti Autosport cars have struggled mightily throughout the season, with their only win coming from Alexander Rossi taking the win at the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil. It is known that the team has struggled with the damper setup on the rougher tracks, Texas being one of them. Andretti also noted that there was another bizarre problem with the front wing that was affecting the handling of his No. 27 Snapple Honda.
“We’ve found that my speedway car had a problem with the front wing,” he said. “I hadn’t been myself on the speedways, so we made a scan and it showed that the wing was twisting. We put a new one on and we’re back to normal.”
Now that the front wing is fixed, Andretti feels that he has a good shot at getting back to the front despite currently sitting mired down in the field in 18th place. He does admit that he will need a dash of luck on his side in order to do so.
“I feel better having the car fixed,” he said. “Even though I am down a lap I prefer to have a car under me. If that’s the case hopefully it’s a long enough race that we can catch a yellow late in the stint than the leaders take so can get back to work.”
Being in sponsor Dr. Pepper’s backyard, a good finish could potentially go a long way on re-signing the sponsor for the 2017 season.
