“Confident” Andretti Pushing for Comfort Over Speed in Indy 500

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief

Marco Andretti is looking to convert his worst starting spot into his best finish in the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500.

The furthest a driver has started and gone on to win “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” is 28th (twice – Ray Harroun, 1911; Louis Meyer, 1936). Andretti will roll off 29th on Sunday, two spots higher than where he qualified after the Team Penske technical violations relegated Josef Newgarden and Will Power to the rear of the field.

Although it’s an uphill climb for the grandson of 1969 Indy 500 winner Mario Andretti, he remains unflappable.

“Yeah, I feel confident here,” said Andretti, who will make his 20th Indy 500 start. “I think when I don’t feel that way, I will probably stop coming back. I want to think that we’re one to beat on Sunday. I just think we haven’t been able to show much yet.

“Speed is more than half the battle here, and that’s just kind of what we’ve been battling. But I’m not one of those that tries to make my car more difficult to drive to find speed. I’m trying to make it as comfortable as possible because we don’t have speed. I’m basically just trying to do everything I can in my power to maximize what we have going on, so hopefully I can carry more throttle than the others.”

Andretti has been an Indy 500-only entrant since 2021, following 15 full-time seasons in the IndyCar Series that included two career wins. Overall, the limited running isn’t something he considers to be a drawback.

“I don’t feel at a disadvantage at all,” said Andretti, pole-sitter for the 2020 Indy 500.

“Even on Day One, if we had to race that night, I’m good to go. It’s the stuff I can’t really practice, like restarts and stuff like that. Just the cadence and timing of that.

“But they (full-time drivers) haven’t been here in a year too, so a lot of the stuff is track-specific. I don’t know. I don’t feel at a disadvantage. I know my results haven’t been where we need to be being a one-off, but last year I think if the strategy played out, we wouldn’t be asked that question for sure.”

There is one new element to this year’s race, though, and that is the addition of the hybrid system. While the new unit provides a boost to the current 2.2-liter, twin-turbocharged V-6 engine with regeneration and deployment capabilities, it also adds an additional 100lbs to the cars.

And one of the concerns for Andretti, who won Indy 500 Rookie of the Year honors in 2006 with a runner-up result, is the potential for drivers deploying the hybrid boost to cover a mistake and making it more difficult to pass.

“Obviously, you want to use it to try to pounce on guys that when they make mistakes,” said Andretti, driver of the No. 98 Andretti Global Honda. “I’m worried about guys using it after they make a mistake and to kind of defend, basically, if you slide wide or something, you hit the button, and it bails you out. We’ll see what that does to the racing.

“I think you can catch guys out if theirs is empty and yours isn’t. That’s an unknown I think for I guess a lot of us. Yeah, I mean, it’s not like a huge shot. It’s just something that if somebody does make a mistake and they don’t have their button, it might help you complete a pass for sure.”