now to where we should be. Things would be a lot different if we were sixth or seventh in the points if we got the finish that I think we deserved there.”
Andretti arrived in 2006 with so much promise. Then 19, he lost the Indy 500 by 15 feet to Sam Hornish Jr. on a front-straight, slingshot pass in the final 100 yards. Andretti later won at Sonoma Raceway to become the youngest series winner( since surpassed by Rahal) and was the Verizon IndyCar Series rookie of the year.
His only other win in 169 starts came at Iowa Speedway in 2011. But he’ s usually been in the hunt— he finished a career-best fifth in series championship in 2013. This season is the first time he’ s not had a single top-five finish.
“ It’ s just one of those things, we just need to get that one result and once we do it will start coming back,” he said.“ My qualifying has been just dreadful, which is making my Sundays worse. I’ ve had to come up through the back row three times this year, two of them we’ ve turned into top 10s.
“ If we’ re starting in the top 10, we’ re going to have different results. Qualifying is huge and just getting the most from the car, not overdriving, because that’ s what happens. You get more frustrated, you drive past what the tires are going to give you, now you have two problems instead of one.
“ When you see guys go rattle off a couple of wins, they probably didn’ t do much different. It’ s just that stuff started clicking. I’ m going to stay at it. I’ m not going to quit because people think I should.”
He realizes the remainder of a lost season is still important. The sooner he figures out the problems, the better Andretti can be in the future.
“ I’ m just not going to write this year off,” he said.“ Maybe for a championship write it off, but I
need to approach every event like a championship in itself and try to maximize every session and just get better and get the momentum going because we’ re not just going to come off a horrible year and win a championship. Having said that,( points leader Simon) Pagenaud is on his way to doing that( this year).
“ You can look like you’ re far off in this sport and you’ re not. Once you find that one little thing, it will put you right back in.”
Andretti and Krupa are waiting for the 2017 series schedule to be announced before they set a wedding date.
“ I have everything I’ ve ever wanted off the track,” he said.“ It’ s just that I find it’ s almost hard to enjoy everything because of the results. My life revolves around results. Once we get one or two of those, I think we’ ll be right back on track.
“ It has to come naturally and the only way that’ s going to come is with results. She knows. You can’ t hide it any other way. You’ re not happy when it’ s not going good.”
Andretti heads next to his home race, the ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway. Practice and qualifying take place Aug. 20, with coverage for the 200-lap race beginning at 3 p. m. ET Aug. 21 on NBCSN and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network.