Marco Andretti returns to Indy 500 at peace with new life: ‘I’m good without the grind’

INDIANAPOLIS – Just below the Indy 500 Winners Circle at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Marco Andretti wandered up to a group of reporters Tuesday morning with an easygoing gait and a broad smile.

It’s been a while, huh?

“About a year,” Andretti said. “Give or take.”

The third-generation driver has adjusted well to a much slower pace since stepping back last year after 15 consecutive full-time seasons in the NTT IndyCar Series.

When he announced that move 17 months ago, Andretti described it as a “reset” of a racing career that had produced two victories and some agonizing near-misses and disappointments at the Brickyard (notably a razor-thin loss to Sam Hornish Jr. as a 2006 rookie; he started on the pole position in 2020 but was unable to lead a lap).

In a statement at the time, his father, Michael, alluded to the pressure that Marco had faced as “for any multi-generational athlete, it can be really challenging to find your own ground and make your own name on top of your family’s. Marco has always had the courage to chart his own path.”

Marco Andretti said Wednesday he remains very much at peace with his decision to scale back his IndyCar schedule to the Brickyard, which always has been the center of his family’s universe as the site of some triumphs and many heartbreaks for him, his father and his famous grandfather, Mario.

“What I put into it, I felt I wasn’t getting out of it for various reasons,” Marco said of racing full time in IndyCar. “But (the Indy 500) is the one I live my life around.”

The 106th Indy 500 will mark his first IndyCar start since the Brickyard last year.

His main focus in 2021 was the six-round Superstar Racing Experience, where he won in a stock car last July at Slinger Speedway in Wisconsin