Poles Apart in the House of Andretti

His drivers have won the last two Indy Racing League races and two of them are in the front row for Sunday’s Indianapolis 500, yet Michael Andretti can’t help but feel a sense of disappointment despite his successes.

No, it isn’t because he’s not suiting up to drive in the race. He says he has no yearning to come out of retirement and drive again.

It’s because of Mario Andretti.

“Dad has no interest in what our team is doing,” Michael said during a quiet moment at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the name Andretti is legendary.

Mario drove 29 times in the 500, winning in 1969 and thrilling racing fans any number of times when he came close, but never won again. Michael drove in 14 of them and never won, but finished in the top 10 eight times before retiring after last year’s race. He led a total of 426 laps, more than any other non-winner.

“I’ve tried to get him to take part, or at least to come and watch, but he’s still caught up in that CART-versus-IRL thing,” Michael said of his father and the split that has divided Indy-style racing in the United States since 1996. “He’s stuck on the other side and somehow he can’t see how the world is changing.

“He has his views, I have mine, but it’s a shame he’s not here to see what we’re doing and join in with the finest group of drivers I have ever been associated with. Why can’t he just get over it?”

Andretti was referring to his four-man team, unusual in itself but, judging from the results, perhaps a harbinger of the future.

Tony Kanaan, Dario Franchitti, Dan Wheldon and Bryan Herta are not so much a race team as a rare quartet of men with the same passion -- to win races -- yet with a sense of fraternity that Andretti has forged into a unique chemistry.

“Somehow, they each realize that if they help each other, by working together, they will each be rewarded,” Andretti said. “But what is more unusual, they not only work together as a unit, they genuinely enjoy each other. It’s so cool watching them. I have never seen anything like it, in or out of racing, in my entire life.”

Wheldon, the young Englishman who was IRL rookie of the year last season, says of his boss, “Having Michael is difficult to put into words. Particularly for a young driver -- he’s been in the situations I’ve been in that are new to me, and he can let you know what you’re supposed to be feeling, what you need to do, how you need to do it. Having that, for me, is invaluable.

“He’s a good friend, too. He’s somebody we can go talk to about racing and life in general because he’s seen it all. He and the other owners have created a team that has an incredible atmosphere. It’s very open, very honest, and there’s a lot of genuine friendships here.”

Andretti spends most of his time with the drivers, leaving Andretti Green Racing’s day-to-day administration to his partners, Kim Green and Kevin Savoree.

“I love working with the drivers,” Andretti said. “We speak the same language, I understand what they are going through, I understand their feelings. That’s important to drivers, to feel that someone understands what they are trying to say.”

Having one of his drivers win the 500 wouldn’t necessarily make up for his never winning as a driver, but it would be a major accomplishment.

“Goals change,” he said, “and it is always satisfying to accomplish a goal and that’s how I would feel about winning as an owner. For whatever reason, I was never meant to win this race as a driver. But maybe I’m supposed to win it 10 times as an owner. Who knows?

“And I would be so happy for any of my four guys who won. It would be so awesome, so fantastic to share in their feelings. All of my guys would feel like they won if one of them won. That’s how we are.”

Michael said he accomplished his first memorable goal when he came here to drive in 1984 and was selected rookie of the year after finishing fifth.

“That was special because Dad had won [the rookie award] too,” he recalled.

In 1991, the year belonged to Michael Andretti. He won just about everything but the Indy 500 and he led 97 of the 200 laps before sweeping past Rick Mears to take the lead, only to have Mears take it back 12 laps from the finish.

“I’ll never forget that last race in 1991 at Laguna Seca, when I won the pole, led every lap, won the Marlboro Challenge and the championship and Dad was there on the podium with me,” he said. “That was really special. That was just a dream year. At Milwaukee, there were three Andrettis on the podium, and four of us qualified for the 500.

“Of course, just having Dad as a teammate for those years was very special. That’s why it would mean so much to me if he would come and be part of what I’m doing here with my own team.”

Other than his 14 Indianapolis 500s, which single race stands out most?

“It was in Australia, in my first race back from Formula One, and I beat Nigel Mansell, the great Nigel,” he said sarcastically. “Mansell had won the championship the year I was gone by driving the chassis and engine that I had developed for Newman-Haas. We had a lot of engine failures in ‘92, but the next year the engine was reliable and he took advantage of it.

“The race had a crazy start and we got in a little bit of a fight. On the first start, Nigel tried to put me in the wall and I told him I’d put him in the wall the next time. On the second start, I let him go and then passed him in the second turn. It was the first time anybody had challenged him. After that, he never challenged me.”

The race was restarted because of a multiple-car crash on the first lap. Mansell had the pole and Andretti was on the outside.

Andretti is 41, still young enough and fit enough to strap himself into one of the team’s Honda-powered Dallaras and lap the Speedway at better than 200 mph. Rumors swirled around Gasoline Alley last week that he might enter a fifth car in the 500, driving it himself.

“Not a chance,” he said, smiling at how the rumor had generated steam.

It started when Andretti took a driver’s physical at the track’s Clarian Medical Center, one of 45 drivers to be checked and OK’d to drive. So why did he take the physical?

“I had to take it so I could drive one of those two-seater race cars,” he said. “I get in the two-seater and give sponsors and their clients a few laps around the track. Nothing more than that.”

Mario has retired, Michael has retired and so has brother Jeff. Cousin John is off driving in NASCAR’s Nextel Cup, but before long another Andretti may be here, taking his physical at Clarian. Marco Andretti, grandson of Mario, son of Michael, is 17 and coming fast.

“He’ll be here in a couple of years, in the Infiniti [development series] race at least,” said the proud father. “It is fantastic how fast he has developed. He is winning races everywhere he goes and he is way beyond where I was at his age. It’s not just his love of speed, it’s the way he creates opportunities on the track and then exploits them. He is calculating, fun to watch because you never know when he will make some creative pass.”

Sort of like his dad, who is now creating opportunities for his four drivers, hoping that the 88th Indianapolis 500 will bring him the first of those 10 wins as an owner.

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Michael Andretti

* Born: Oct. 5, 1962, son of Mario Andretti.

* 1991: CART national champion with single-season-record eight wins.

* 1984: Finished fifth at the Indy 500, selected rookie of the year.

* 1993: Left IndyCar circuit for ill-fated Formula One try.

* 1994: Returned to IndyCar (now CART).

* 2003: Retired from racing after the Indy 500 to run Andretti Green Racing team.