Andretti spooked by ovals

Marco Andretti's second IndyCar Series season comes down to one painful statistic. He has yet to finish any of the five oval-track races, crashing three times and voluntarily retiring early from the other two. Right, photo of a scared looking Marco Andretti talking to teammate Tony Kanaan and his Engineer Eddie Jones, courtesy IRL

His confidence is understandably low.

"I've never been so frustrated in all my life," the 20-year-old driver said while preparing for tonight's race at Texas Motor Speedway, an oval track. "The difference between this year and last year is I'm not having fun."

Andretti, who won a road course race last season, knows his oval misfortunes have to change in short order. The close racing in tonight's Bombardier Learjet 550k won't afford a driver lacking in confidence to succeed, and Andretti needs a successful finish.

He needs a race in which his No. 26 machine returns to Andretti Green Racing's shop with all its parts and pieces in line. He needs a race in which he can enjoy dueling with teammates Tony Kanaan and Dario Franchitti, one in which he climbs out of the car wishing the race wasn't yet over.

He has had none of those this year.

At the season-opening race in Homestead, Fla., Andretti, who considered himself a championship contender, said he and engineer Eddie Jones got greedy with the car's setup, risking comfort for speed. It proved to be a bad move. After 53 mostly frightening laps, Andretti parked it.

In Japan, Andretti became anxious with the leader coming up to lap him and lost track of the bigger picture: that he was racing Scott Dixon for fourth place. He crashed.

In Kansas, he tried to learn from his Homestead mistake, this time choosing comfort over speed. Forty-three laps into the race, he climbed out of the cockpit frustrated.

"I was lifting (off the throttle) at the start/finish line going into the corner," he said. "There was no 'soldiering on' that day."

The Indianapolis 500 was going smoothly for Andretti until his mirrors vibrated out of position late in the race. After making one move to pass cars on the backstretch, he turned slightly to the right, which happened to be the space Dan Wheldon's car was occupying.

"I was upside down before I realized that I had hit him," Andretti said.

At Milwaukee last week, Andretti was eyeing a top-five finish with fresh tires late in the race when he decided that racing more aggressively could help him win. The next thing he knew, the car was crumpled against the second-turn wall. More at Indy Star