“Last year, I said I came back to race with my son, but I came so close. It was within my grasp again. This time, I’ll be more disappointed to finish second than eighth. I want to win this race.”

Mario, retired since 1994, raced often against Michael, Jeff and John and has been his grandson’s main sounding board as Marco has moved up the ladder in racing.

Mario avoided the Indy 500 for years after the bitter IRL-CART split in 1996, unhappy with IRL founder and Indy boss Tony George for creating a second open-wheel series. But he returned in 2003 when AGR joined the IndyCar Series, and now is nearly always in the pits and ready with advise and concern when Marco is in his car.

“I’ve never said that Indianapolis owes me or my family anything,” the elder Andretti said. “But another win here would be very big for all of us. Marco should have a lot of opportunities and he’s already shown he can be competitive and have a chance to win, and Michael showed everybody last year that he is still a force.”

The 44-year-old Michael has led more laps here than any other non-winner. That includes laps 194-197 of the 200-lap event last May. Marco passed his father and led laps 198 and 199, but it was Hornish, with a more powerful Honda engine, eventually charging past both of them for his first win here.

That has left a bad taste in the mouths of both of those Andrettis.

“It still hurts and it will continue to hurt every day,” Marco said. “If I go on to win this thing four times, I’ll still think it should have been five.

“But, the way I look at it and my mentality, how it’s changed from last year, is we were 5 miles an hour off last year and we still nearly won this race,” Marco said. “We’ve gained a little bit of speed, so let’s go into the race with the same mentality as last year, you know, just maximizing everything and minimizing mistakes and we should be there at the end.”

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His father, who has had many more Indy disappointments, has much the same view.

“My dad should have won this thing three or four times and I probably should have won it at least three times,” he said. “But this is another chance. It’s the reason I’m here. I wouldn’t be (driving) here if I didn’t think I could win it.”

As for Marco’s attitude, Michael said, “Obviously, he was probably more disappointed than any other rookie would be because of his experience of being around Indianapolis with his grandfather and his dad and seeing if you don’t take advantage of it when you have it that it may not come.

“But I’m also happy he wasn’t happy with second, you know. That shows he’s a winner.”

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