Virginia 500 - John Andretti Notes

John Andretti Notes, Quotes: Virginia 500
‘Past champion and front-runner at Martinsville’

John Andretti, and the #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team, travel to the flat .526-mile Martinsville (Va.) Speedway for this weekend’s Virginia 500 with past success on their side. In only 18 starts, Andretti has proven that he is one of the more dominant drivers at the track in a short period of time. The 1999 winner of this race, Andretti has two top-fives on the paper-clip oval and has earned over $690,000. Only one other driver has earned more money, and won, in less starts at the track than Andretti.

Andretti is in his sixth consecutive season with Petty Enterprises with over half of his NASCAR Winston Cup starts coming for the legendary organization. Andretti’s vast racing experience ranks him as one of the most versatile and talented drivers on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit. He is one of only two drivers to win in two different major racing series and also win two or more major NASCAR Winston Cup oval races. Winner of the 1991 Gold Coast Grand Prix in Australia, one of CART’s premier events, Andretti was also a winning driver in the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1989 in the series then known as IMSA.

The thoughts of Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge driver John Andretti heading into Martinsville:

“We’ve always run good at Martinsville. I always go to the track in a good frame of mind and with a lot of confidence that we can get it right. There have been times that I’ve been there, and halfway through practice I have panicked a bit thinking we weren’t going to get it, but when it’s all said and done, we always do.

“We’ve been awful strong there and haven’t got repaid in kind. Even though we have won at Martinsville and have run up front, the track definitely owes us one or two. Sure, it’s a place where we could win. It’s not an aero track. It’s a track where the guys are working on it mechanically. That is where it’s all going to happen.

“I don’t know why I like going to Martinsville, but I just always have. I like racing there because you’ve got to get the car to do a lot of different things, but it really never does any one thing particularly right. There are so many things you have to worry about - the brakes, keeping the nose on the car, and not running into people. For all those reason, it’s pretty tough.

“It’s the flattest and smallest track we race on, and it is also the slowest. That’s pretty tough with 42 other cars on the track. That makes for some close quarters. The track is difficult because of all those things. Qualifying at Martinsville is really hit-and-miss too. It’s like that for anybody, but more for me than normal. I can go out there and cut a really good lap, or I can start in mid-pack, but no matter where we start I know our team will do a really good job.

“In 1999 we spun out early in the race, the first hundred laps, and I thought to myself, ‘This is not good.’ We got lapped in the process. I felt that we had a car capable of winning and we just kept working and working. In the same green flag run we ended up unlapping ourselves and moved into the top 10. It took about 350 laps for us to do that, so at the end, we didn’t have much time to make it all happen. Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace were battling pretty hard in front of me, and Jeff Burton and Jeff Gordon were doing the same thing in the front. They were just wearing out each other’s tires. I was just riding around in fifth with really old left-side tires. Once everything got all sorted out they weren’t running as fast anymore. I drove around all of them until I got to Burton. It was with about three laps to go we were able to get around and pull away for the win.

“It was a really big win for us. I am not saying that they all aren’t, but the way we did it make it a really big win. We had tested there and knew we had a car capable of winning. To pull it off, and to be able tell ourselves what we do believe is right, the world is round again. We thought we could win and we proved it. Hopefully we can do that again really soon with this Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge.”

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