Andretti Left on the Inside Looking Out : Indy 500: Mears is passed, then passes the latest hard-luck family member to win.

In what has evolved as the natural order of things here in the last 20 years, Rick Mears wins Indianapolis 500s and Andretti--any Andretti--doesn’t.

So when Sunday’s race came down to Mears and Michael Andretti, everybody should have known what to expect. And in that situation, only the naive expect the unexpected.

Michael Andretti was naive.

“I knew that I was going to have to try to get the jump on him on the restart (on the 187th lap, after a caution period) because it’s really hard to pass, at least it was for me, when guys are about the same speed,” Andretti said.

And so, tucked behind Mears after a quick pit stop for a splash of fuel, Andretti stood on it and, taking advantage of straightaway traffic, blew around Mears on the outside in Turn 1 on the restart lap. And that, he figured, just might do the trick.

“I thought that Rick was going to have a hard time getting by me,” Andretti said.

So much for naivete. On the next lap, Mears returned the favor, emphasizing it by taking Andretti on the outside. It was one impressive pass.

“He had a lot of straightaway speed, and he was just able to get a really strong run on me, coming off of (Turn) 4. And I tried to block him to the inside, and he was able to get me on the outside,” Andretti said. “I guess he was paying me back.”

Mears got his point across.

“The last few laps were the fastest I ran in the race, and he was able to run a little quicker,” Andretti said.

“I had a quicker car in traffic, but his car ran better in clean air, so when he got ahead of me, I knew I was pretty much done.

“I saw the move coming and I was hoping he wouldn’t be as crazy as me (and pass on the outside), but he was.”

When a yellow light bunched the field again with only 10 laps left and Mears easily pulled away from Andretti on that restart, not even the naive were surprised.

“He was a little smarter,” Andretti said. “He stood on it way back in Turn 3. He did it right. With his straightaway speed, he just pulled away from me.”

Even so, Andretti was grateful for that one last opportunity, supplied, coincidentally, by his father, Mario, whose stalled car at the entrance to the pits had brought out the yellow flag.

“I knew the only way I could get by Rick was if I could get him on a restart, but he was ready for it. He wouldn’t let me jump him again.”

Had it not been for an early flat tire, though, Andretti said, Mears would have been in no position to catch him at the end.

“It was around the second pit stop or so,” Andretti said. “I was leading and I was coming up on Rick. He was the next car in front of me to lap, and all of a sudden I started to go really loose.

“I went into Turn 1 and just went sideways. I almost lost it.”

So when he pitted, not realizing he had a flat and figuring that something was wrong with the car’s aerodynamics, he had his crew adjust the front down-force wing. The crew also replaced the offending flat in a routine tire change, unknowingly sending Andretti out with a poorly handling car.

“I had a big under-steer,” he said. “So I had to go all the way through to the next pit stop to make the adjustment to get back to where it was. That’s when everybody was passing me and I was playing catch-up.

“If that would have never happened, I know I would have put Rick a lap down, and I think it would have been a different ending. (At that point,) I think he was in serious trouble. They worked on his car during the race and he was strong at the end, but he was real loose at one time.

“It’s really disappointing but then again we got beat. At least we didn’t beat ourselves, and there wasn’t any bad luck, except for that flat tire. No mistakes, all the way through.”

But it didn’t change the natural order of things here. Rick Mears wins races, Andrettis don’t.