Mario Andretti Bumps Mansell Off Pole With Record Run : Indy car racing: Veteran reaches 234.275 m.p.h. during qualifying for today’s race at Michigan Speedway.

Don’t count Mario Andretti out as an Indy car power just yet.

The 53-year-old veteran stunned Nigel Mansell, his Newman-Haas teammate, in an eye-popping duel of former world Formula One champions Saturday with a record-breaking run of 234.275 m.p.h. to win the pole for today’s Marlboro 500 at Michigan International Speedway.

Earlier in the day, Mansell had posted a speed of 233.462 to better the Indy car record of 232.618 by Roberto Guerrero in 1992 at Indianapolis and Mario’s own track record of 230.150 set last year.

“This is big time satisfaction for me,” Andretti said. “When Nigel went out before me and did the 233, I didn’t think I could reach that. I hadn’t done it in practice. I surprised myself a little.”

Both drove Lolas powered by Ford-Cosworth engines.

Andretti’s feat was popular with fellow Indy car drivers, who did not appreciate Mansell’s harsh criticism of the two-mile Michigan oval after Friday’s practice.

“I would like to compliment all the drivers who have driven here through the years,” said the British driver, who is in his first year of Indy car racing after winning the Formula One crown last season. “I am far from happy with the bumps. It’s not so bad when you’re driving 160 with the bumps, but when you’re doing over 230, well, I just take my hat off to those drivers who have put up with it as long as they have.

“I’m certainly not happy and I don’t mind voicing my opinion. I made a joke of it: You go over certain bumps in Turn 3 and you change your underwear coming out of four.”

One front-running driver, who asked not to be identified, said: “It’s one thing to complain, but how can he complain when he comes in and runs 230 right off the truck. He’d never seen the track before. He never even tested here. I resent all his complaining.”

Mario, who has sat on the pole six previous times at Michigan, was more complimentary of the 25-year-old track. Incidentally, Andretti was the pole winner for the first Indy car race here when he ran 183.670 m.p.h. in 1968.

“The track was great,” he said. “I attacked it from the word go. We needed to build momentum to reach the speed and I was on the red line all the way.”

Danny Sullivan, winner of last June’s Indy car race at nearby Belle Isle in Detroit, had to withdraw after being stricken with a bacterial infection. He returned to his home in Aspen, Colo.

This reduced the already slim field to 23 starters for 500 miles around the fastest track on the 16-race Indy car circuit.