Marco Andretti had maybe the best run he’s had in years in Race 1 of the Chevrolet Dual Detroit.
Starting from the pole, his first on a road or street circuit, Andretti led the first 23 laps before Scott Dixon, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and Graham Rahal ultimately got ahead of him during pit stop cycles.
However, when Rahal crashed out on Lap 47, it put Andretti back into podium contention, as he sat in third behind Dixon and Hunter-Reay.
But, a restart with 10 laps to go saw his Andretti Autosport teammate Alexander Rossi make an outside pass entering Turn 3.
Still, despite the strong run, Andretti is looking for more out of Race 2 on Sunday.
“You hate to go backwards. We definitely wanted another trophy. I haven’t had a podium in while and that’s been getting to me, let alone the win. We’ll do some homework tonight on how we can improve on the race today and do better tomorrow. We want to get the pole (on Sunday),” Andretti detailed afterward.
Andretti heads to Race 2 looking for his first podium since 2015 - at Auto Club Speedway - and his first win since 2011 - at Iowa Speedway.