While Marco Andretti continues to set a promising pace in preparation for this year's Pole Day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, another member of the family is weighing up the chances of making the prestigious 500 later in the month.
Although continuing to dabble in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series with the inappropriately-named Front Row Motorsports, John Andretti turned up at the Brickyard for Fast Friday, ostensibly to sound out the possibility of running in the 500, while Jeff Green was drafted into his regular car for qualifying at Darlington.
"I have taken the physical, but I'm too short," he joked, "I'm trying to get something put together. I think with everything good that happens, there's always something with a little bit of a flip side. I think, with reunification, there's not an engine shortage, there's not a tyre shortage, but there's a car shortage now. People are struggling to get extra efforts together. The people that already have them already have them locked in."
Andretti, who has only made the cut at a handful of NASCAR races this season, made seven consecutive starts in the Indianapolis 500 between 1988-94 and returned for an eighth start last year. However, he confirmed that his search for a berth in 2008 was not going smoothly.
"The opportunity that I had put together in April kind of took a change because of some things, so it's frustrating," he sighed, "Today hasn't been a good morning and, right now, my enthusiasm is pretty low because I really want to be here, but I should have just gone to Darlington, to be honest with you.
"Right now, I just feel like a man on an island. It is what it is, but it's more than a little bit frustrating because it's a race you don't want to miss being in, especially when you have the desire, like I do, to be in it.
