Andretti to the IRL? UPDATE: If talks between Michael Andretti and Tony George lead to the Championship Auto Racing Teams star starting his own team in the Indy Racing League next year, might he try to lure his cousin, John, back to the open-wheel ranks? “You’d have to ask him that,” said a grinning John Andretti, who is in his ninth season on the Winston Cup circuit. “I think he’d be too cheap to pay me.”(Indianapolis Star)(7-19-2002) UPDATE: John Andretti is another driver left wondering about his future. He’s not sure if he’ll be back with Petty Enterprises after his contract expires at the end of the year. Asked when he’ll know what he’ll be doing next season, Andretti said: “I guess when there’s only one seat left and I’m the only driver left, then they’ll figure it out.” Andretti had a slight disagreement at Petty this season when Kyle Petty refused to let him run in the Indianapolis 500. Andretti wants badly to run that race again, and it could be a reason why he’d leave the Petty’s three-car operation. But he said if he did go elsewhere, it would be in NASCAR and not an open-wheel series. “I don’t have any plans to leave Winston Cup,” Andretti said. “Other people might have plans for me to leave Winston Cup, but I don’t. I want to still do the 500. I’ve never hidden that, but I haven’t got to do it since I did it in 1994. I’m not the most impossible guy in the world to deal with. There are things I want, but I can appreciate when you sit down and talk about it, I’d like to think I’m rational, and I try to do the right thing.”(ThatsRacin.com/AP)(7-21-2002)
