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Change In Abundance At Andretti IndyCar Team, What Does It Mean ?
Danica Patrick's new IndyCar with GoDaddy.com
By Anne Proffit
There has been an abundance of change on Zionsville Road on the northwest side of Indianapolis at the home of the former Andretti Green Racing team. That company is now known as Andretti Autosport and headed by Michael Andretti, without benefit of Kim Green or Kevin Savoree.
What does this change mean?
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Will Andretti at the helm bring a more harmonious atmosphere at headquarters of a team that won three Indy Racing League IndyCar Series championships and two Indianapolis 500 Mile Races? Can Andretti bring back the harmony that made this team pretty much omnipotent in its early IRL years?
Andretti Autosport finally announced that driver/celebrity Danica Patrick will return for another three years, but the 2008 one-time winner and 2009 fifth-place points holder loses her Motorola sponsorship and now has primary funding from GoDaddy.com, the seller of domain names known for its risquÈ commercials that feature – Danica Patrick!
AA has had personality conflicts in abundance since the departure of team leaders Bryan Herta and Dario Franchitti. Where there was once enviable conviviality on this team there is now the stress and strain of powerful personalities who are only looking out for themselves.
Another way of explaining this phenomenon is to recall a comment once made by 1996 Target Chip Ganassi CART champion Jimmy Vasser: “There is no ‘I’ in [the word] team, but there is in Chip.” He was referring to tempestuous team owner Chip Ganassi, but might as well have been talking about Patrick or Andretti’s son Marco.
At its zenith, Andretti Green Racing had the best harmony amongst the best drivers with the best equipment. Nobody cheered louder for Tony Kanaan in 2004 when he finished every lap of every race and handily won his first IndyCar Series championship – than his teammates, who fought Kanaan tooth and nail on the racetrack and played just as fiercely with the Brazilian off of it.
Telling point – at the IRL’s championship celebration this year for Dario Franchitti, now a two-time champion (earning his first with AGR and this year’s title with Ganassi), the Scot asked the gentleman who had just awarded him a diamond-encrusted watch, “Is it waterproof?” He knew Kanaan was in the house and, as the party occurred poolside, what his destiny would be. The dunk readily occurred; according to our sources, the watch still works.
Racing is entertainment as much as it is sport, and having camaraderie throughout a paddock is essential. No having camaraderie within one’s team is devastating.
Within Andretti Autosport, three drivers are fairly well certain. In addition to Kanaan and Patrick, we expect to see Marco Andretti back with his father’s team. There are hopes for a fourth IndyCar Series driver in 2010, but that identity is not yet know. The team also hopes, as it has since 2007, to have a joint venture with AFS Racing in pursuit of a third consecutive Firestone Indy Lights championship.
Andretti Autosport made a crucial move over the past week to strengthen its core, hiring 40-year racing veteran and topnotch team manager Tom Anderson as senior vice president of racing operations. Anderson, who co-owned Fernandez Racing from 2001 through this past season, has the kind of temperament that fosters hard work amongst the crew and good play amongst all.
Anderson will greatly help morale at Andretti Autosport. He is professional, enjoyable and one of those guys who just knows how to get people settled down and thinking on the same page. This is a very smart move on Michael Andretti’s part, as is the retention of John Lopes to work on the commercial aspect of the team.
Of course, putting people together into a group does not a team make, but the positives of these moves – re-signing Patrick, keeping Lopes and adding Anderson – bode well for a group that has certainly looked to have lost its way over the past two seasons.
(c) 2009 Anne Proffit
PaddockTalk Perspective
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