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[dave carr]

Indy Car racing has been a battle between the two super teams in recent years. If Team Penske and Target Chip Ganassi Racing both had bad days then another team would have a chance to win.

A team that often looks like it's ready to challenge the big two took a big step backward in qualifying and final practice and it looks like Andretti Autosport and team owner Michael Andretti are looking like a longshot to return to Victory Lane for the third time.

Andretti Autosport looked like a contender in practice leading up to qualifying for the Indy 500 last weekend. Unofficial team leader Tony Kanaan ran in the top ten in every practice session and set quick time on Thursday. It appeared that team mate Danica Patrick’s Go Daddy sponsored car was struggling but the rest of the team was producing solid if not spectacular results.

For some reason the qualifying weekend’s unseasonably warm temperatures and bright sunshine caused the Andretti Autosport team to melt like a quart of ice cream left in a closed car on a hot day. Kanaan ran a lap at 225.996mph good for 10th quick in pole day morning practice but spun and crashed during his qualification attempt in the early afternoon.

The best effort the Andretti Autsoport team could manage on pole day was Marco Andretti’s 224.575mph average set at 11:21am which earned him the 16th qualifying position--a little over three miles an hour off the pole speed. The younger Andretti referred to the attempt as “pathetic.”

That meant that none of Andretti Autosport’s four cars were able to participate in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s new “Fast Nine” second phase of pole day qualifying.

Ryan Hunter-Reay was slotted just behind Marco in 17th but presented a much more positive face on the qualifying effort. “We don’t really have a qualifying car right now,” Hunter-Reay explained, “We have a race car, and that’s what I’d rather have. We’re good in traffic and the Andretti team always puts together great race cars.”

Danica Patrick’s “It’s not me, it’s the car” comments on the Speedway’s public address system after her disappointing 224.217mph qualifying run irked some fans enough to shower one of the league’s most popular drivers with a smattering of boos. At 23rd, her time was just quick enough to make the 24 positions open to first day qualifiers.

Bump day began with another disaster as Kanaan crashed again twenty minutes into the morning practice. The second major crash in two days forced the struggling team to pull crew and scavenge parts from various cars in the Andretti Autosport garages to rebuild Kanaan’s stricken ride. The car would be repaired in time for Kanaan to return to the track later that afternoon.

John Andretti was first in line to qualify on bump day and put together a four lap average of 224.518mph that put him safely in the field and Kanaan managed to squeak into the field in the 32nd of 33 starting positions with a run of 224.072 in his cobbled creation (Kanaan will start 33rd as the team will replace his qualified car with a new one).

Even though qualifying weekend was a disaster, a good performance in the one hour Carburetion Day final practice would go a long way to relieving some anxiety in the Andretti team. Although the team suffered no accidents and Marco Andretti did turn in the 12th fastest time, the team’s other cars were at least a half second off the pace that Target Chip Ganassi’s Dario Franchitti set.

Particularly troubling was Danica Patrick’s #7 team struggled with laps in the 215-218mph range until they turned a 223mph lap late in the session to give her the day’s 21st quickest time.

This is a team that's performed pretty well this season. They placed three cars in the top ten and all five cars in the top 13 at Kansas and won the Long Beach race with Ryan Hunter-Reay.

Now they are faced with the prospect of being well off the pace with no practice time remaining before Sunday’s race. They have been outperformed by teams like FAZZT Racing, KV and DRR leading up to the series biggest race.

The team's most recognizable drivers will need a lot of luck to finish well.