Andretti Green Racing

Andretti Green Racing is an auto racing team that competes in the IRL IndyCar Series and the American Le Mans Series.

Early years in CART

Founded in 1993 by Barry Green and Gerry Forsythe as Forsythe Green Racing, they fielded two Atlantic cars for Claude Bourbonnais and Jacques Villeneuve. In 1994 Barry Green and Gerry Forsythe split up and Barry renamed the team Team Green, with his brother Kim Green joining as team manager, and competing in the 1994 CART championship as a single car team for Jacques, eventually winning both the Indianapolis 500 and the CART championship in 1995. In 1996 Team Green became known as the Brahma Sports Team for a season, with driver Raul Boesel. In 1997 KOOL tobacco took over as a major sponsor with Parker Johnstone, before expanding to a two-car effort in 1998 with Paul Tracy and rising youngster Dario Franchitti. The two stayed on as teammates for five seasons. In 2001, Michael Andretti joined the team in a separate effort headed by Kim Green, known as Team Motorola. Andretti won his last race as a driver at the '02 Long Beach Grand Prix. In 2002 switched from Reynard to Lola chassis, producing a striking new livery to coincide with the change.

Change to the IRL

Teammates Tony Kanaan and Dario Franchitti compare notes on Pole Day for the 2007 Indianapolis 500.

After major problems in CART surfaced, Andretti, who had purchased majority interest in the team, switched the newly-renamed Andretti Green Racing in 2003 to the rival IRL series. Tracy left the team to stay in Champ Car, with Tony Kanaan joining Franchitti and Andretti. Andretti retired after the 2003 Indianapolis 500, and Dan Wheldon took his place. AGR has run four cars since the beginning of 2004, with Bryan Herta behind the wheel of the additional car. In the 2005 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg AGR had all 4 drivers finishing 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th. With Weldon at first followed by Kanaan, Franchitti and Herta to round out the top 4. Kanaan and Wheldon won consecutive IRL titles in 2004 and 2005, with Wheldon winning the Indianapolis 500 in 2005. Andretti referred to the win as his very own, as good as if he had won it as a driver, because of the nuances of car ownership and building his own team. Wheldon's championship was his last before free agency, and joining the Target Chip Ganassi Racing team in 2006. He was replaced by Michael's son, Marco Andretti. Michael Andretti came out of retirement to qualify for the 2006 Indy 500 to help his team defend their championship. It was announced on July 25, 2006, that Danica Patrick would join the team for the 2007 IndyCar season.^[1] It was announced on October 31, 2007 that Hideki Mutoh would join the team and drive the 27 car.

American Le Mans Series

Andretti Green Racing's Acura ARX-01a at Road America.

In 2006, it was announced that AGR would join Acura as one of the official works teams.^[2] The team worked with Highcroft Racing on the development of the Courage LC75 chassis. The team debuted the newly-renamed Acura ARX-01a at the 2007 12 Hours of Sebring. The AGR team finished second overall, and took the maiden LMP2 win for Acura with drivers Dario Franchitti,Marino Franchitti, Bryan Herta, and Tony Kanaan.

Drivers

CART (1995-2002)

• Claude Bourbonnais (1993)
• Jacques Villeneuve (1993-1995)
• Raul Boesel (1996)
• Parker Johnstone (1997)
• Dario Franchitti (1998-2002)
• Paul Tracy (1998-2002)
• Michael Andretti (2001-2002)

IndyCar Series (2003-)

• Michael Andretti (2003, 2006-07)
• Dario Franchitti (2003-2007)
• Tony Kanaan (2003-)
• Dan Wheldon (2003-2005)
• Bryan Herta (2004-2006)
• Marco Andretti (2006-)
• Danica Patrick (2007-)
• Hideki Mutoh (2008-)
• Robby Gordon (2003) Indianapolis 500 injury replacement for Dario Franchitti
• A.J. Foyt IV (2006) Injury replacement for Dario Franchitti

ALMS (2007-)

• Dario Franchitti
• Marino Franchitti
• Bryan Herta
• Tony Kanaan

Current sponsors

IRL

• 7-Eleven
• Bryant Heating and Cooling
• AirTran Airways
• Argent Mortgage
• Canadian Club
• New York Stock Exchange
• Vonage
• Motorola
• Go Daddy
• Coca-Cola
• Miller Brewing Company
• The Palms
• XM Satellite Radio
• Nestle Water
• One America
• Alpine
• M&Ms
• Fritos
• Kellogs
• Kraft
• Accelerade
• Peak Antifreeze
• Bayer Health Care
• Meijer
• Jim Beam
• Forsythe Technologies
• Argent
• UGS Corp

ALMS

• XM Satellite Radio, Acura

Notes

External links

• AGR Home page
• Andretti purchases majority interest of Team Green