If not as a driver, then as an owner

Michael Andretti has completed his sixteenth and most likely final Indianapolis 500. Finishing thirteenth, Andretti ran very competitively, even leading a lap amongst pit stop exchanges, yet that may not be enough to get him back into a car next year.

"It's just the way it happened. Obviously it wasn't meant to be - to win it as a driver," said Andretti, who celebrated his second win as a car owner on Sunday with driver Dario Franchitti.

"We won it as an owner. Two of the last three years isn't too bad. Like I said when we won it in '05 (with Dan Wheldon). Maybe I'm just meant to be — meant to win 15 of these things."

Andretti was making an obvious reference to former driver Roger Penske who has won 14 Indy 500's as a car owner.

Despite leading 431 out of 2918 possible laps at Indy, Andretti had no victories to show for what at times was complete dominance. In 1992, Andretti led 160 laps before a fuel pressure problem took away certain victory with less than a dozen laps remaining.

While not as heartbreaking, Andretti's 2007 run was still frustrating. " I really thought there was going to be a lot more out of today. It was just a day that nothing worked. I think we had an okay car, it's just I got mixed up in the back and I could never get to the front," he said.

Andretti's previous retirement saw him on the sidelines for the 2004 and 2005 Indy 500's, until being coaxed back to race against son Marco in 2006.

ORS / CAPSIS International