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Indy 500: Marco Andretti ‘knew we were in trouble’ in 2020

By Asher Fair

Marco Andretti, Andretti Herta Autosport, IndyCar, Indy 500 - Mandatory Credit: Mike Dinovo-USA TODAY Sports
Marco Andretti, Andretti Herta Autosport, IndyCar, Indy 500 - Mandatory Credit: Mike Dinovo-USA TODAY Sports /
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Marco Andretti admitted that he knew he was going to be in trouble on race day for the 2020 Indy 500 despite dominating practice and taking the pole.

Marco Andretti’s epic four-lap qualifying run at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last August put him on the front row for the second time in 15 Indy 500 starts, and it delivered him his first ever pole position for the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”.

However, he failed to lead the famed IndyCar race into turn one of the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) oval in Speedway, Indiana.

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Now, five times from 2010 to 2019, the polesitter didn’t lead the race’s first lap. But Andretti’s disappointing day was just getting started. He became the first polesitter in 19 years to not lead the race at all and the first in 25 years to not lead despite not crashing out on the opening lap.

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But despite the fact that he dominated practice, the fact that he had taken the pole position and the fact that Andretti Autosport looked like the team to beat, Andretti admitted that he knew things weren’t going to go well in the race because of an issue with the car on Carb Day.

“For my entry in particular, on Carb Day, it happened, and I kind of knew that we were in trouble for the race,” Andretti told Beyond the Flag after discussing his new partnership with MTN DEW.

Even still, he thinks he should have finished around sixth place last year, but the race itself was simply not pretty for the #98 team.

“From then on out, I probably should have finished about sixth, and then we ended up around 13th with every pit stop sequence I kind of shuffled back,” he explained.

But he believes that the issue is fixed for this year’s running of the race.

“It’s something that I can’t really say, but it’s something that we think we have a handle on,” he said. “The team has made some unbelievable strides from that standpoint, and if we roll off with anything close to the speed of last year, we can win the race.”

But he knows that there is plenty of work left to be done in order to get to that point.

“At the [preseason] test, I wasn’t overwhelmed with the speed, so we’re going to have some work to do from that standpoint, but I really want to focus on the race car more than qualifying because I started on the front row there a couple times, but I haven’t won the Borg-Warner [Trophy] yet. So really, really focus on the race this year,” he added.

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Indy 500 qualifying is scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 22 and Sunday, May 23, and the 105th running of the race itself is set to be broadcast live on NBC beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET on Sunday, May 30.