Andretti will leave driver’s seat – again

Michael Andretti will leave the driver’s seat to focus on running Andretti Green Racing after finishing a disappointing 13th in the Indianapolis 500.

The second retirement of Andretti’s career comes after his 16th – and apparently last – appearance at the Brickyard on Sunday. The 45-year-old Andretti has led more laps (426) at Indy than any other non-winning driver.

“I’m glad I did what I did,” Andretti said Monday about his last two races at Indy. “It was all good, but I was going crazy this month. I just felt there were a lot of things I could have been doing for the team and I couldn’t do.”

Michael, the son of 1969 Indy winner Mario Andretti and a longtime open-wheel star, retired following the 2003 May classic. He returned to the Indy 500 last year to race against his then 19-year-old son Marco.

Michael finished third and Marco second, with Sam Hornish Jr. passing the youngster on the final straightaway to continue the saga of dismal Andretti luck at Indy since the win by Marco’s grandfather.

Michael, who said he came back this year for no other reason than to try to win a 500, was never a factor in the strange event, a truncated race interrupted by a three-hour rain delay and then cut 34 laps short by more rain.

His son, who again had a shot at winning, led three times for 13 laps. Marco wound up 24th after a spectacular and frightening crash. He was not injured.

Franchitti gets $1.6 million

Dario Franchitti, who drives for Andretti Green Racing, collected more in race winnings from his Indianapolis 500 victory than he had from any other full season of his career.

Franchitti’s win in the race shortened by rain to 415 miles was worth $1,645,233 from a record purse of nearly $10.7 million. The previous record was $10.5 million last year.

Franchitti, 34, had his best-previous earnings year in 1998 with $1.4 million when he won three CART races.

Phil Giebler, one of just two first-time drivers in the race, won the rookie of the year award. He was 29th.