The name Andretti is synonymous with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Mario, Michael and Marco all have a long and storied history with this speed shrine. While Mario may be the lone source of victory from a driver’s perspective, Michael’s team has won the Indianapolis 500 five times.
Every May this organization loads into Gasoline Alley as one of the premier teams, and often considered to be the favorites to drink the milk on Memorial Day weekend. That will be the case once again this month, but there is some unfinished business to attend to first.
With the debut of the IndyCar Grand Prix in 2014, a new tradition was born. The “Month of May” now began with a road course race inside of the famed 2.5-mile oval. While some believed the race would be detrimental to the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, Michael didn’t see it that way.
Before the 2014 season began, Michael was asked how he felt about having a second race at IMS in May. “I don’t know, I guess we have to try new things and see what happens,” he said. “I know some people are in 100 percent disagreement on it, but I’m not. I’m in let’s-see-what-happens mode. See what kind of interest there really is. Tradition is great and they try to hang on to it, but you have to be careful not to hang on to it to where it actually hurts you. We have to go with them on that one and see what happens.”
What happened is that this race has grown enormously since then, sometimes out of necessity. When IndyCar was trying to find events to fill the calendar during the onset of the pandemic, they held not one, not two, but three races on the IMS road course in 2020. Last year there were two races as they raced on the same weekend as NASCAR, and that is the plan again this year.
Looking at the 11 races that have been run on the IMS road course, eight of them have been won by Team Penske. Will Power has five of those wins, along with five poles. The driver of the No. 12 Chevrolet has absolutely dominated this event, with…
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