Marco Andretti Goes on Record with the pdog

Marco scores the silver at Homestead and celebrates by answering a series of burning questions about life, The Name, The Nose, The Track and how he loves to take it to the rack --- with authority.

Huge ups to my boy and AGR PR legend Rob Cleveland (chicks dig him!) for getting Marco on record. (I got this late on April Fools Day, so I won't rule out that it's a total hoax.) But, in the meantime ...

pressdog: What are your goals for this season?

Marco: My goal is to win the championship and I think it's a goal that we can reach.  We had a disasterous season in the #26 car last year and I don't want to ever go through that again.

pressdog: What’s your favorite track and why?

Marco: There are too many to limit it to just one. Indianapolis means the most to me for a variety of reasons. There's so much family history there and I've been able to do a lot of things there in a few short seasons. I have always liked Nazareth with it being just a few miles from where I grew up. I also really enjoy St. Petersburg. It's a fantastic road course.

pressdog: Everyone is rightly geeked up about unification. What’s the most exciting element of the whole thing to you?

Marco: Just knowing that there is no question you are racing against the best drivers and teams. When you win a race, you have beaten a lot of quality drivers. The added competition makes it more difficult and will make all of us better drivers.

pressdog: How do you bounce back after your sophomore year? How do you Etch 'a' Sketch that one out of your mind and come back strong in 2008?

Marco: You can't. Last year was terrible and we had awful luck at every turn. There wasn't a lot to learn from last year but we can still take a few things and build for 2008.

pressdog: What would you say has been your biggest improvement as a driver since you started in the IRL?

Marco: I think it has to be racing on ovals. I think Eddie (Jones - race engineer) and I have gotten to a point where he knows exactly what I need on an oval and I think we showed that at Homestead. I had a great ride at Indy in 2006 but we struggled on most of the other ovals. We ran well last year at Iowa and Michigan but I think we've done a great job in the offseason really improving on the ovals.

pressdog: What’s difficult about your job that most people don’t realize is difficult.

Marco: All of the PR commitments.  No, really, probably the time we spend engineering. I wouldn't say it's difficult but it's definitely where we spend the most time on race weekends. A lot of people don't know that.

pressdog: Who’s the funniest driver in the league?

Marco: Wheldon is the funniest dressed driver in the league. The funniest guy has to be my teammate, TK (Tony Kanaan).

pressdog: Who’s the most tightly wound driver in the league?

Marco: That might be me. It could be TK, too. He's intense and that's why he's so good on the track.

pressdog: What do you do during all the downtime from week to week? How do you pass the time?

Marco: We don't really have a lot of downtime during the race season. We spend three or four days at the track during race weekends. The other days, we could be testing somewhere. We could be making a sponsor visit or doing PR stuff somewhere. If I do have free time, I like to lay low and hang out at home.

pressdog: Finish this sentence: Put the average fan into a car, run ‘er up to 210 and they’d be in the wall by turn ______.

Marco: One.

pressdog: Everyone talks about how harrowing qualifying for Indy is. Is it as freaky/scary/pants wetting as people say?

Marco: I don't think so. Actually, when you're qualifying, it's actually the most relaxed you've been all week. As we get closer to qualifying, the pressure gets higher as you try to find more speed. Once you get in the car, things are fine. Qualifying is tough because you have to really loosen the car up but that's what we're paid to do.

pressdog: What part of your game do you think needs the most improvement right now?

Marco: We need to work on our oval qualifying.  We made a lot of progress on the ovals over the offseason but we still need to work on our qualifying setups on the ovals.

pressdog: Name something that makes you laugh every time.

Marco: I love Will Ferrell.

pressdog: When you tell people you drive race cars for a living, what’s the usual reaction?

Marco: I don't usually tell many people. The question we get asked the most is, "what do you do when you have to go to the bathroom?"

pressdog: Carrying The Name around with you your whole life? Blessing? Curse? Some of each?

Marco: Oh, definitely a blessing. It's opened a lot of doors for me. There's been a lot of pressure, but no more pressure than I put on myself.

pressdog: Sunglasses. So you put a lot of thought and effort into selecting the right pair? How many pairs do you own? Do you think it should be mandatory for race car drivers to wear them at all times?

Marco: I love sunglasses. In fact, I only wear Gatorz.  They have such a great selection that it's difficult to select any one pair. Check them out at www.gatorz.com.

pressdog: Favorite sport you like to participate in other than racing?

Marco: I like to play basketball. I work out a lot and always enjoy playing basketball.

pressdog: Would you like a shot at Dances with the Stars? Or would you have to be totally hammered to go on the show?

Marco: Oh no, that would be bad. I'll leave that to Helio.

pressdog: Do you feel the urge to win everything you participate in or can you turn the competitive juices off and on?

Marco: I want to win everything I do on wheels. There's no turning that off. I'm pretty reasonable with other things, though. I can have fun but still be competitive.

pressdog: What’s the biggest non-racing lesson you’ve learned from the AGR teammates, especially Kanaan?

Marco: Just that you have to relax and enjoy racing. My dad and I had a talk last year and he could tell I wasn't having fun. I think you could tell that my results got better when I was able to enjoy it a little bit more. At the end of the year, we just ran into back luck. Mid-Ohio was out of our control. At Belle Isle, we had a mechanical issue.That wasn't fun. We just had a spell of bad luck.

pressdog: Do you call Tony “grandpa” or make fun of him in some similar fashion?

Marco: When you have a nose the size of TK's, it's pretty easy to find things to make fun of. Usually, though, TK is leading the way on making fun of himself.

pressdog: Is pressdog.com, in fact, your favorite racing blog of all time?

Marco: Not really, I'm just doing this because my PR guy asked me to. Of course it is. Who doesn't love pressdog?

Thanks for caring enough to bullshit me, Marco! You seem to be, I think, sidepod worthy.

--

Comments

[Johnny]

Whoa, great interview PD! And great answers from Marco as well. Nice job at getting me "geeked" for St. Pete.

[mmack]

'Dog,

Get Marco to "Show The Love" for your site by having AGR plaster a "Pressdog.Com" decal on the #26 car, preferably visible via on-board camera view.

Hoax or not, thanks for not asking about going to the N-word Cell Phone Series.

[John in Speedway]

Awesome interview! As I mentioned on mynameisjohn, the marketing efforts worked too. I'm gonna buy me a pair of gators if I can afford them (haven't checked the price yet). Props to you P-Diddy! (ok, I know you didn't like that, so I'll never call you that again)

[pressdog]

Thanks, peeps. Bring at least a C-note to the Gatorz shop. Marco seems like a fun guy.

[Aaron]

Wow, nice interview with Marco. He's become much more, how shall I say it, well-spoken since I interviewed him in June of 2006. Fewer "definitely"'s and "ya know"'s. But he's a good guy, certainly hope he gets a win this year. Again, nice post. Enjoy hearing news about the 26.

[sunglasses]

Nice answers from Marco. I'm a big fan. He's so handsome.