With four laps to go, the announcers exclaimed that father and son — 19-year old Marco Andretti — were running one-two in the closing laps of the Indy 500.
I flashed back to a few months ago, when several IRL drivers visited D.C. to promote the race and the upcoming SunTrust Challenge at Richmond. The big story of the day, of course, was Mi-chael’s return to Indy and joining his son on the grid.
Marco was in D.C. too, and I asked him — half-jokingly — if he was second behind his dad in the closing laps at Indy, would he bump him out of the way for a win?
For a kid under 20, Marco dodged the question pretty deftly.
“No pressure,” he said with a laugh then. “That would obviously be a fairy tale, and it would be awesome. It would definitely be a dream come true.
“I would not be handing him the race, that’s not how he would want it. It’d be like yeah, we’re teammates, but we’re going to go try to win the race for both of us. And like I said, he wouldn’t want to take a win like that.”
It was a fairy tale scenario, but the ending wasn’t meant to be. Marco didn’t hand the race to his dad, passing with just a handful of laps to go. He seemed to have the race in hand, leading by seven car-lengths (according to the radio announcers) when he exited turn two.
Sam Hornish Jr. somehow made up the deficit and passed Marco on the final straightaway to win the race by .0635 seconds.
A fantastic finish to be sure, but one that will leave the Andrettis hurting.
I was pulling for either of Michael or Marco. I grew up in the same region where they live (though about 15 miles north of Nazareth and a couple of tax brackets south of the family). They are easily the area’s most famous celebrities.
So it’s disappointing to see both come up empty-handed, especially when both were so very close. And so, for another year, the family leaves the Brickyard with just one victory among it — patri-arch Mario’s win in 1969.
There’s promise in that Michael already has an Indy 500 win as an owner, and Marco’s career is long before its peak.
But for this year, there’s only disappointment, for the family and their fans.