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 Nineteen year old Marco Andretti made history
this week by qualifying for the Indy 500. Yes, he is the son of Michael
Andretti and grandson to living legend Mario Andretti, but more
importantly
he is the first NASA driver to run in the Indy 500. Marco Andretti
recorded
a four-lap average speed of 224.918 miles per hour (2:40.0856 seconds) in
the #26 NYSE Dallara/Honda/Firestone during qualifying at the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway last Saturday and will start from the ninth position, for
the
90th running of the Indianapolis 500. His time puts him just inside of
Danica Patrick, and four spots ahead of his father, Michael Andretti.
Marco ran with NASA in 2004 in the Formula TR series, where he won his
very
first professional race at the California Speedway on March 6th. He backed
that finish with another win the following day, making a clean sweep of
the
weekend in his Polk/MOMO/GATORZ sponsored car. Marco went on to dominate
the
series, winning his first professional championship with NASA.
In 2005, he placed 5th in the Star Mazda Championship and won 3 out of 6
races in his debut in the Indy Racing League Menards Infiniti Pro Series.
Marco on Qualifying: "Qualifying was just what I thought it was going to
be,
there were no real surprises. Don't get me wrong, those were definitely
the
longest four laps of my career. It was nervewracking, but the NYSE guys
did
a great job and gave me a great car. In a way, I sort of knew what the #26
NYSE car was going to do but it doesn't matter. You still have to make it
work.
I'm a little disappointed with my times; they could have been a little
better but they could have been a lot worse. It just feels great to be
done
with it.
"I definitely felt a lot of pressure but I got some great advice from Tony
(Kanaan). He just told me to put the helmet on, flip the visor down and
go.
There are a lot of people that try to tell you to act a certain way out
there, but others tell you to just be yourself and drive the car
and that's what I try to do."
You can show your support for this fellow NASA driver by sending him an
email of congratulations and best wishes by clicking here.
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