The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 4

rio, it's same I misfortune 7 sad story: :3 By DAN DUNKIN STAR STAFF WRITER The Mario Andretti story continued Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Same old story. The Indy 500 chapter of Andretti's otherwise glorious career just kept getting sadder. The 1969 "500" winner's poor fortunes continued during last year's disappointment, when he led 170 laps before a $4 part cost him victory on the 177th lap. at least Andretti didn't spend an entire afternoon getting his hopes up.

But to Andretti. that was little consolation. "Disappointment is disappointment." Andretti said as he walked, head up, to his garage. "What can I tell you?" Andretti, who at 48 is running out of chances, was asked if he agreed with fans who say he deserves a better fate at the speedway. "I have to agree with them," Andretti said.

"Here, anyway. "Well, I'm young yet. I'll be back." pected. As they (the Penske team) were getting their tanks lighter, I was just reeling them in, and that was my pleasure, because as soon as we made some of the changes on the stop, my car felt a lot better. "And obviously, it could've been a good race for us." Once the gearbox problem was fixed, Andretti enjoyed a smooth ride and made the best of a bad day until he could do no more.

"Everything was running beautiful." Andretti said. "Then the ignition just let go." So for the 17th time in 23 times at Indianapolis, Andretti dropped out early. Compared to Both misfortunes kept Andretti in the pits almost as long as he was on the track. Andretti sat stoically in the cockpit of his No. 6 AmocoK mart LolaChevy for two extended periods: he and his crew refused to quit when they might as well have.

Finally, with car co-owner and actor Paul Newman looking on equally solemnly. Andretti lifted himself out of the car about 20 laps from the finish. He had only completed 118 laps. "A long day. obviously," said Andretti.

"We just had a problem in the gearbox. Right at the beginning we had an oil leak out of a bearing. Then (his crew) changed that, of course. "Then 1 think the ignition went dead in the engine. They changed all the electronics that they could change externally, but just couldn't find the problem." And so came the end to another maddening May for Andretti, who, like last year, began the month as the man to beat and ended it losing to the gremlins that have haunted him here like demons.

"We were trying to salvage what we could out of the day," The day began with Andretti on the inside of Row 2 ready to push the Penske team of Rick Mears, Danny Sullivan and Al Unser Sr. sitting in front of him. Although disappointed with his performance during the time trials two weeks earlier, he was optimistic after his car's showing on Carburetion Day. The usually aggressive Andretti's early-race strategy was to hold off going for the lead until after some chassis changes were made on his first pit stop. But shortly before Andretti's first stop, his strategy engine started smoking when he experienced an oil leak.

An eternal pit stop put on Lap 54 left him 22 laps behind the leader. Until then, Andretti, running as high as third, had been confident of his chances. "I think we were where we wanted to be, because you could see we were reeling them in," Andretti said. "At the start. I was not going to be too aggressive, for my own reasons, because I knew that I had some changes coming on the first stop.

"As it was, the car was really running even better than I ex You put (forth) such an effort, you're here for so long this month, and you don't want to give up, but you really have to give up." Mario Andretti BEDFORD'S PAVING BLACEITOPV. LCri BEAT THE SUMMER RUSH! BUY NOW SAVE! 1 TvSsn-V thINAmiwiththi NO MONEY DOWN FIXED INTEREST RATE I V4S 4 FINE reputation. TNI BANK FINANCING SENIOR CITIZEN I VjJJ'' NM YOU CAN TBUSI. STAR PHOTO JAY ALLEY The eyes tell all: Mario Andretti leaves his car. Andretti said.

"I mean it's you put (forth) such an effort, you're here for so long this month, and you don't want to give up, but you really have to give up. "Well, that's the character of my team and that's the character that makes us take the disappointment and put it aside, and just come back." his 18th attempt to win his second race. A gearbox problem plagued Andretti early and put him out of contention until Ignition failure ended his race. Too slow for comfort, Michael Andretti uses cautions to stay close lass mm AWi WW Ml lily lim 1 Had the race lasted much longer, it's possible young Andretti wouldn't have been around. With two laps to go, parts of his car fell off, causing the final caution of the afternoon.

"Some right side body work flew off my car with a couple of laps to go," Andretti said. "I think that's what brought out the last yellow. It would have caused me a lot of problems had it happened earlier. "At the same time it was a bit of a shame because I was working on passing Al (Unser) Sr. at the time." Andretti got through the first turn and went to No.

2 Just after the start of the race and said he only realized there was trouble behind him when he looked in his rear-view mirrors "and saw some smoke." Otherwise, he said, despite some frustration, he was satisfied to finish the race. I I Yi 17 EM0RIAL DAY SPECIAL VI ALL STORES ARE OPEN TODAY FROM 8 A.M. TO 6 P.M. tCHA RC0AL BRIQUETS I 12 PACK "COCA-COLA By BILL PICKETT STAR STAFF WRITER For a day that was frustrating for many because of the yellow lights. Michael Andretti used them to his advantage.

At the same time, the fourth-place finisher in Sunday's 500-Mile Race experienced his own frustration, especially on the straightaways. His No. 18 Kraco MarchCosworth didn't have the horsepower to keep up with some of the other cars. "We were very, very slow on the straightaways," said the 25-year-old who registered the best finish he's had in five outings at the speedway. He finished fifth in his rookie year of 1984.

eighth in '85 and sixth in '86. running at the end in all of them. Last year, he dropped out after a fire in the pits after 29 laps. This time, however, things went more or less according to plans. "The crew did a good Job getting us in and out of the pits, and we just hung in here.

And we maybe have to thank all of the yellows or we might have lost a couple of laps early." he said. There were 14 caution periods Sunday, beginning with a three-car pileup in Turn 2 on the first lap. Sixty-seven laps were run under the yellow. The caution periods, Andretti said, affected the Kraco team in a positive way. "We were really struggling to keep on the lead lap and when it seemed like I was going to lose it a yellow would come out and I'd get it back," Andretti said.

The race went the way he thought it would. "I knew it was going to be a little frustrating. But at least I brought It home. These 500-mile races are important in points towards the (season) championship, because It's hard to finish them. So we got some points toward the 20 POUND BAG OF CENTRAL'S OWN FAST STARTING, LONG BURNING HARDWOOD CHARCOAL BRIQUETS.

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