INDIANAPOLIS – Marco Andretti has won the pole for the Indianapolis 500 in a lightning-fast first step toward snapping the infamous “Andretti Curse” at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.Andretti logged a four-lap average of 231.068 mph in Sunday qualifying, and an Andretti now will lead the field to green for the first time in 33 years.
Mario Andretti won his third and final pole for the Indy 500 in 1987, when grandson Marco was an infant.As his grandson surveyed the conditions before Sunday qualifying, noting the wind had picked up from a day earlier when Marco Andretti was the fastest in the field, he remembered advice Mario Andretti has long shared with the racing family.“He said, ‘The wind will scare you, but it will never crash you,’” Marco.