Jarett Andretti Shakes Off Rust With Top 10 Finish in USAC Season Opener

17 mar 2017

Jarett Andretti has put the #18 Andretti Short Track car eighth in the championship after one round.

Jarett Andretti made the most of a difficult opening weekend in USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Series

Jarett Andretti, driver of the Andretti Autosport Short Track #18 car, came away from the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Series season-opener at Bubba Raceway Park eighth in the championship. Challenged by a lost test night at the Florida track and a rained-out opening race, Jarett made the most of the weekend with an 11th-place finish Friday and a P9 result Saturday.

“Ocala is always a blow-off-the-cobwebs kind of race for us,” said John Andretti of Andretti Short Track. “A lot of [AMSOIL Series] competitors run sprint cars and midgets over the winter. We aren’t set up to do that.”

Nevertheless, Jarett ran fourth-quickest in the opening practice, but the green racetrack from recent Florida storms changed rapidly throughout Friday’s qualifying. Running in the middle of the qualifying field, the track went away from their setup and Jarett qualified 11th. After transferring to the Feature from his heat race, Jarett worked forward but had to back out from getting collected in two other competitors’ fight. That dropped him back several spots, forcing him to work his way back to P11 despite a minor driveline issue.

Jarett Andretti poses with the #18 Andretti Autosport Short Track car.

Jarett Andretti is following the Andretti tradition of USAC racing in the AMSOIL Sprint Series

Saturday night followed a similar story: Qualifying 11th and transferring to the Feature, then getting caught up in a bit of bad luck while following veteran Dave Darland. Jarett pushed through it to finish 9th, which is no small feat when knocking off the winter rust against a deep USAC field. It’s all part of a learning experience for Jarett, who often squares up with racers with decades of experience, some of whom raced John in USAC Sprint Cars.

“USAC just makes us better,” John said. “They’re gonna race us hard and that raises up our level. Winning a USAC race is as tough as an IndyCar or NASCAR Cup race because the talent is so deep.”

The rest of 2017 will find Jarett running 70 to 80 sprint-car races. That will include USAC races as well as a variety of events that fit into the schedule. Next up will be the opening round of Mansfield Motor Speedway’s Triple Crown Spring Series on March 25. That race reopens Mansfield, a former paved oval that was converted back to a dirt 0.4-mile oval, for the 2017 season.

Look for Jarett Andretti in USAC sprint cars and in other events that fit into the Andretti schedule

In just his second year of sprint-car racing, Jarett will run 70 to 80 races in 2017

A win there might bring them back to run the remaining pair of Triple Crown races the following two weekends. Otherwise, they’ll likely race at Indiana’s Lawrenceburg Speedway for the next AMSOil round on April 1. Knowing the track—Jarett has won there before in Midgets—gives some advantage in competing with the talent-filled USAC series in just his second year in sprint cars.

“Right now, Jarett is learning the guys [in the series] and what he needs to do to race around them,” John said.

Andretti Short Track will be running their DRC Chassis all year with the J&D Performance-built engines putting down big horsepower. Those engines get their air and oil through K&N filters, as does the engine on the team’s tow rig.

(Photos: Rick Lane Motorsports Photography]

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