Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Andretti considers giving up his driving career

Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2003 | 9:30 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Michael Andretti's driving career in the Indy Racing League's IndyCar Series may be short-lived.

Andretti is seriously considering retiring as a driver after this year's Indianapolis 500 and said he would announce his decision prior to the March 2 IndyCar Series opener in Homestead, Fla.

The son of racing legend Mario Andretti said the dual role of owner and driver this year is fueling his decision to give up driving. Andretti last year bought out CART team owner Barry Green and formed the three-car Andretti Green Racing, which will compete this season in the IndyCar Series.

"(Ownership) is tough; it is different and I do not want to be out there driving if I can't give it 110 percent and that's what I have to weigh right now -- if I can do both -- and I haven't really decided if I can yet," Andretti said Tuesday.

"What's going to make the decision is if I really feel I can do both effectively. I can't have anything take away from my driving in any way. If I feel like it is, that's when I have to really look at it."

Andretti Green Racing will field cars this season for Andretti, Tony Kanaan and Dario Franchitti. Andretti and Kanaan tested the team's new Honda-powered Dallaras last week at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Following the test, Andretti said he began to wonder if he was spreading himself too thin by taking on roles as both driver and team owner.

"I was asked right after the test how I felt and at that point I felt like it was going to work OK," he said. "Then there's all the follow-up work that has to go into it and then you start seeing that it's a lot of work and it's taking away from my commitment of the driving. That's something I've got to weigh and right now I'm having problems with it in my mind.

"My future in racing is ownership, so that's where my real commitment is going to be because I want to make this team one of the best teams out there -- if not the best. That's where I'm going to put my real effort and if I can't do that and drive at the same time, then that's where I'm going to have a problem. At the moment, the driving is the thing that I will probably give up, only because I know that I'm getting to the end there anyway."

Andretti, 40, holds the CART record for victories with 42 during his 19 years in the series. The 1991 CART champion's resume is lacking only an Indianapolis 500 victory; he is winless in 12 career starts at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Although Andretii said he still wants to win Indy "real bad," he said if he steps out of the cockpit after this year's 500, he would not attempt to run Indy in the future.

Andretti Green Racing has hired 24-year-old Englishman Dan Wheldon as the team's test driver and Andretti indicated Tuesday that Wheldon would replace him in one of the team's three cars when he retires.

The 45-year-old Canadian driver ran three IPS races for Schmidt last season with a best finish of third at Chicagoland Speedway.

The winged sprint cars will visit two new tracks -- Fox Ridge Speedway in Arcadia, Wis., and K-C Raceway in Chillicothe, Ohio, and return to Hartford (Mich.) Speedway and Lawrenceburg (Ind.) Speedway for the first time in several years.