Diamond Hill Plywood 200 - Rookie Friday Quotes

Raybestos Rookie John Andretti won his first career Bud Pole at the 1995 Southern 500 at Darlington. He led 41 laps on the way to a 12th-place finish.

JOHN ANDRETTI, No. 10 FREEDOM ROADS/CAMPING WORLD FORD: “I’ve always like Darlington. I think a lot of people like racing here. It’s such a different kind of challenge. If they built Darlington today, everybody would whine and complain. But everybody loves racing here. It’s the same ol’ treacherous place that it’s always been. It seems to be bumpier than I remember it and a little more narrow because of the safer barrier but other than that, it’s the same ol’ place.”

HOW MUCH PRIDE DID YOU HAVE IN WINNING THE POLE HERE A FEW YEARS AGO? “It was huge, obviously. It was the Southern 500 and I got to be part of the Unocal Record Club. And not only did I get to be part of it. There is a whole history and tradition behind that. You have to earn your way in but I set a track record that weekend. I got a white jacket, which there’s only a very few people that have that so I take a lot of pride in it. It’s not something that you’d probably wear out at a social gathering, but when we used to have the record club and I went to every one of them and I wore my white jacket. You’d see Benny Parsons and Richard Petty and the Allisons and Bobby Johns. Everybody would show up and it was just really cool. If you’re going to get a pole, you might as well get it at the place that’s too tough to tame. We ran good in the race. We battled with Earnhardt for a while but then we had an engine problem.”

HOW BIG OF A MONTH IS IT FOR THE ANDRETTI FAMILY AT INDIANAPOLIS? “It’s a lot of history going on. I think Mario is probably going around looking for a ride, which he could get easily, I’m sure [smiles]. It’s jut big. Michael is coming out of retirement for this one race. Marco, of course, this is his first Indianapolis 500. I think Michael’s doing the race. I’ve been saying that he’s doing the race to help Marco and all that. I think it’s more or less, if he does the race, then he doesn’t have to worry about Marco. He’s more worried about what he’s doing and I think that’s the best way to handle it because I know that my uncle is a lot more concerned now that he’s outside the car than he ever was when he was racing because you’re got your own issues.”

WOULD THERE EVER BE A SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES WHERE YOU GET IN A CAR AT INDIANAPOLIS? “Right now I keep mulling over some opportunities that are there even for this year. I’ve got to make a decision pretty quick but I got to get through Darlington first [smiles].”