AP News, May 26th, 2007
Sam Hornish Jr. and Marco Andretti can remember every turn of the wheel, every nudge of the pedal. It came down to a few feet at the end of 200 laps, as Hornish streaked across the finish line to win his first Indianapolis 500, while the youngest member of the famous racing family was left to wallow in another Brickyard heartbreak.
A year removed from last year's classic duel, both drivers know they will be forever linked in victory and defeat, even with the very distinct possibility that both could soon be heading in different directions.
Hornish is not doing anything to stifle speculation that he's leaning toward NASCAR in 2008, and Andretti already has tested a Formula One car.
But Sunday, they'll hook up again in the Indy 500. Neither has forgotten what happened a year ago.
"I wish I had a dollar for every time it was brought up," Hornish said. "I've either talked about it every day, or 10 times a day. I see it on TV all the time. It's a pretty neat thing."
Marco was a 19-year-old rookie when he surged to the lead in the closing laps _ passing his father, Michael, of all people. It appeared this baby-faced youngster would actually end the Andretti curse, in effect since his grandfather Mario claimed the family's only Indy victory way back in 1969.
But Hornish simply had the faster car. He got around Michael and quickly closed Marco's seemingly insurmountable gap. Even after backing off the throttle on the next-to-last lap to avoid a wreck in turn three, Hornish roared back on the final trip around the 2 1/2-mile oval, putting himself in perfect position off the final turn to blow by Andretti coming down the long straightaway.
The only way Andretti could have stopped Hornish was to wreck them both.
"Where the hell did that come from?" Michael Andretti still laments to this day.
Hornish won by a little more than a car length _ just 0.064 seconds, the second-closest finish in Indy's 90-race history. Marco and Michael settled for second and third, which might as well be last and last.
"The one positive thing is I really have no regrets about those last couple of laps," Marco Andretti said. "I was flat out until the finish. What else do you want me to do?"
Still, it nags at him that he came so close, in his very first try, to winning the race that has consumed his family. Asked when he got over the disappointment of finishing second, Marco just shook his head.
"I never will," he said.
Even if he wins this year?
"It would be a little bit better, but it won't eliminate last year out of my mind," Andretti said. "It never will. This is the biggest race in the world, and we are race car drivers. Of course, we want to win this thing as many times as possible."
Growing up in neighboring Ohio, Hornish felt a similar passion for Indy. He, too, dealt with plenty of disappointments: inexplicable wrecks, mechanical breakdowns, not one finish in his first six Indy starts, even though he usually had one of the strongest cars.
With another powerful car and one brilliant move, he forever lifted that stain from his resume.
"Those things eat at you," the three-time IndyCar champ said. "You feel like you've done other things, done almost everything else you could, but you can't get this other piece of the puzzle done. When you finally accomplish that, it's a real sense of relief."
But, by scratching that very annoying itch, Hornish might very well have cleared the way for a move to more lucrative stock cars. He's already moonlighting in the NASCAR Busch Series, and there are no flat-out denials, no hemming and hawing about his desire to join the big boys in Nextel Cup.
"My first love is always going to be the Indianapolis 500, but I love watching the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400," Hornish said. "I've always felt like once you win something as big as the Indianapolis 500, why not try to be only the third guy (after A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti) to win the Daytona 500 and the Indy 500? Why not try to be the only guy to win the Indy 500 and the Brickyard 400? Those things start entering your mind."
If anything, Hornish looks as though he's already letting his mind wander toward NASCAR. He's yet to win a race this season and comes into the 500 just sixth in the IRL standings, though he readily acknowledges he should have been top-three at every event.
He's also struggling in the Busch series, failing to crack the top 10 in five starts and sitting 47th in the point standings.
Trying to show his focus is firmly on Indy cars _ at least for now _ Hornish canceled a scheduled two-day Busch testing session at Charlotte Motor Speedway last week.
"I'm 100 percent focused on running the IndyCar stuff," he said. "The stock car stuff is extracurricular."
Marco Andretti insists he's not even thinking about Formula One, even though he tested one of the high-tech cars for Honda over the winter. But, if the time comes to make a decision, he won't have any trouble finding someone to go to for counseling.
His grandfather won the world championship in 1978, while his father didn't even last an entire season with his ill-fated move to F1 in 1993.
"Obviously, there's a lot to learn from what happened to me," Michael Andretti said. "He knows that you've got to be with the right team. I would highly recommend to him that if he's not going to a team that he feels he can win with, don't go."
