Michael Andretti

* The 36-year-old oldest son of racing legend Mario Andretti will race through the streets in Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. He won the event in 1986. On the Waterfront: Because I'm so busy traveling around the world for the 20-race CART series, I don't spend a lot of time in any one place, but my favorite weekend in Southern California is Grand Prix weekend.

INDIANAPOLIS — Another Indianapolis 500, another tough day for an Andretti driver. Marco Andretti entered the race brimming with confidence and had one of the strongest cars in the first half of the race as he led a race-high 59 of the 200 laps Sunday. But he fell to 14th after a caution period came out immediately after the team made a pit stop. Then, with 13 laps left in the race, he spun and hit the Turn 1 wall, a crash that he said "definitely rung my bell. " He finished 24th and is still looking for his first Indy 500 victory.

For once, Michael Andretti didn't have to worry about fuel, and he had a blast. Shuffled to last place after a bump from rookie Scott Dixon on the first lap of the CART Molson Indy, Andretti took advantage of 11 cautions to keep his fuel tank full and won Sunday for the seventh time in the auto road race's 16-year history. "We made four stops in this race," said Andretti, who won here for the second consecutive time.

Friday in Long Beach was a day better suited for ducks than drivers. That was not a good thing, because this is the weekend of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Plenty of drivers are on hand, all itching to exercise their right foot, none seeing much positive in the rain. Except for one, the driver with the surname so famous that his every touch of the clutch is scrutinized. In sports, it is one thing being "the son of," but try being "the son of and the grandson of. " Marco Andretti is 25. He drives for Andretti Autosport, owned by his father, Michael Andretti, 49, a highly successful IndyCar driver, who started in 1984 and drove his last race in 2007.

Michael Andretti, outdueling Al Unser Jr. in a battle of second-generation drivers, earned his first Indy-car victory Sunday in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. That kept the race through the streets of downtown Long Beach in the family since Michael's father, Mario Andretti, had won both previous CART-PPG Indy-car series races on this circuit. The 23-year-old Michael Andretti, making both fuel stops earlier than his top competitors, managed to run the final 40 laps around the 1.

Michael Andretti outraced trouble Sunday, ending Team Penske's seven-racing winning streak and earning his fourth Toronto Molson-Indy victory. Andretti took control after bumping and passing Nigel Mansell for the lead on lap 26 as the defending series champion's right-rear tire deflated. Andretti was virtually unchallenged the rest of the 98-lap, 174.44-mile race, beating Bobby Rahal to the finish by 6.8 seconds in earning his 29th Indy-car victory.

A mistake by Michael Andretti became a blessing Sunday as he survived an off-course excursion to beat his father, Mario, in the Red Roof Inns 200 at Lexington, Ohio. The younger Andretti, who started from the pole, slid off the wet track and through grass and gravel, nearly the guardrail one lap past the halfway mark in the 89-lap, 200-mile race. His slide dropped him from first to third place, behind Mario Andretti and Eddie Cheever.

Michael Andretti drove his backup car to a track record in winning the Fiesta Bowl 200 at the Phoenix International Raceway. Andretti, 24, of Nazareth, Pa., trying to win his first CART-PPG title, picked up 21 points to tighten the Indy-car point race with leader Bobby Rahal. Rahal leads, 174-171, with only the season finale on Nov. 9 in Miami, Fla., remaining. Danny Sullivan, who got back on the lead lap on a restart just 11 laps from the finish, was second, a distant 20.

Canadian Paul Tracy, who helped make Roger Penske's team the most dominant in Indy car racing this season, will join forces with Michael Andretti next year in an attempt to short-circuit his former team. The announcement that Tracy and Andretti would become teammates on the Paul Newman-Carl Haas team--replacing Nigel Mansell and Michael's father, Mario--ended weeks of speculation about Tracy's future. Would Penske hold him to his contract for another year?

First Mario Andretti and then Roberto Guerrero looked like a sure winner at Milwaukee Sunday before fate stepped in for the second straight week, this time handing the victory to Michael Andretti. The younger Andretti picked up his second straight Miller American 200 win, the fourth victory of his Indy-car career, while his father was in a nearby hospital undergoing precautionary X-rays and Guerrero was hiding his disappointment in his motor home.

It has been a year since Andretti agony at Indy reached the third generation. Still, the memory seized 20-year-old Marco just the other day -- just as it has "a couple of times a day, every day since," he said. "We just lost the biggest race in the world." He spoke as if it had happened minutes earlier. "This was right in his grasp," said Mario Andretti, still hurting for his grandson. "I mean, it just really bothers you -- you know?"

Danica Patrick is back at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with something she hasn't had since she rocked the racing world by almost winning the Indy 500 as a rookie in 2005. A chance. "Last year was definitely like, 'Go out there and do the best you can, and bring it home [in one piece].' We really did not feel like we had a shot at all," she said while preparing for Sunday's 91st running of the 500. Last year she did a little acting for her public.

One of the first things you notice about 19-year-old Marco Andretti is that he looks barely 15, yet carries himself as if he's 25. In preparing for his Indianapolis 500 debut, Andretti also has shown an ability to handle a race car with skill that seems beyond his age. He will start ninth in the 33-car field, on the outside of the third row, when the green flag falls Sunday for the 90th running of the race. Andretti qualified his No. 26 Dallara-Honda at an average speed of 224.918 mph around 2.

Dan Wheldon won the Indianapolis 500, Tony Kanaan won the pole and Dario Franchitti led 15 laps Sunday. So what about the forgotten member of the Andretti Green team, Bryan Herta? All the 35-year-old from Valencia did was close fast to finish third and give Michael Andretti two of the first three finishers and put a close to the "Andretti Curse" at Indy.

As a driver here in the Indianapolis 500, Michael Andretti finished second, third twice and fourth in his 14 tries. As an owner here, on his second try Sunday, Andretti finished second, third and fourth, all at once. As a driver, he never won here, often, in the best -- or worst -- traditions of the Andretti family in the 500, losing under excruciating circumstances.

His drivers have won the last two Indy Racing League races and two of them are in the front row for Sunday's Indianapolis 500, yet Michael Andretti can't help but feel a sense of disappointment despite his successes. No, it isn't because he's not suiting up to drive in the race. He says he has no yearning to come out of retirement and drive again. It's because of Mario Andretti.

Life outside the cockpit agrees with Michael Andretti. The perpetual scowl is gone from the face of the IndyCar star, now a co-owner of the three-car Andretti Green Racing team in the IRL. "I just don't miss having to get focused and having to be on edge," said Andretti, who began his new career as team owner at the end of the 2002 season and competed as a driver for the last time in May's Indianapolis 500. "I lived 20 years that way," he said, smiling.

Michael Andretti sat quietly in his Indianapolis Motor Speedway garage, looking out the door at the commotion he has caused. He has been inundated by the media and besieged by fans every time he leaves his relative sanctuary amid the tool boxes, car parts and engines. It would be ideal for Andretti if everybody would just leave him alone and let him get ready for today's Indianapolis 500.