Beat the clock

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Beat the clock
Andretti's 10 cars among late flurry of Indy 500 entries
Posted: Thursday April 6, 2006 7:40PM; Updated: Thursday April 6, 2006

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Michael Andretti headed a late flurry of entries into the Indianapolis 500.

The co-owner of Andretti Green Racing said earlier he would drive in his son Marco's rookie race at Indy but wasn't entered until his list of 10 cars arrived only hours before the entry deadline Wednesday night.


The race had 59 cars and 24 drivers as of Thursday, although the Speedway expected others postmarked before the deadline to arrive by mail through next week.

"Very exciting times for us ... and me personally, obviously, with everything that's going on," said Michael Andretti, who drove at Indianapolis 14 times but retired after the 2003 race to concentrate on running his team. "I think with the team that we have, it's just been a dream these last three years."

Andretti Green won the IRL's IndyCar championship in 2004 with Tony Kanaan and again last year with Dan Wheldon, who won the 500 but joined Ganassi Racing this season. In his place, Andretti brought in his 19-year-old son, who drove last year in the developmental Indy Pro Series. Marco won the Indy Pro Series race on the Speedway's road course during the Formula One U.S. Grand Prix last year.

The Andretti fleet includes two cars each for Michael and Marco and two each for Kanaan, Dario Franchitti and Bryan Herta. Besides Marco Andretti, the only other rookie entered as of Thursday was P.J. Chesson, who is driving for the new Hemelgarn team co-owned by NBA star Carmelo Anthony of the Denver Nuggets.

Marco Andretti would be the fifth member of his family to drive at Indianapolis. His grandfather, Mario, was rookie of the year in 1965 and won the race in 1969. Michael (1984) and his younger brother Jeff (1991) also were rookies of the year but never won the race. Their cousin, NASCAR driver John Andretti, also raced at Indy seven times without a victory.

Michael, whose best finish was runner-up to Rick Mears in 1991, has led more laps at Indianapolis than any other non-winner. He said he had no plans to drive in any other race this season.

"I have to get out of the car, unfortunately," he said. "It would be a little too much of a strain on the team to run five cars outside Indianapolis. ... I don't know if I'm going to be here next year for sure. We'll have to see what happens this year."

The late batch of entries also included six cars by Ganassi for Wheldon and 2003 IRL champion Scott Dixon, who had the fastest lap Wednesday in the only open testing before practice begins May 7.

"There is certainly some momentum of him coming off such a strong year and joining our team," Dixon said of his new teammate, Wheldon. "It cheers people up when a guy like that comes over. Both of us have had a pretty good start, second, third in points, hopefully we can improve on that."

Wheldon, six points behind Dixon and 29 points behind series leader Helio Castroneves after the first two races, called Indianapolis "the most difficult race in the world" to win.

"But I do believe we've got the potential to do it," he said. "I think that the racing that everybody is putting on is very, very close. ... So I think we're all in for a very exciting year."

Other late entries included cars for Ed Carpenter and Tomas Scheckter, whose Vision racing team is owned by Speedway and IRL boss Tony George. Carpenter is George's stepson.

Besides Wheldon, other former Indy winners entered for the May 28 race are Castroneves, Al Unser Jr., Eddie Cheever, Buddy Lazier and Buddy Rice. Unser, who last raced in 2004, and Cheever, a team owner whose last race as a driver was in 2002, are also coming out of retirement this year.