AUTO RACING 'Andretti Luck' causes Michael's racing career to end bitterly

A broken throttle line caused Mario's son to finish 27th at the Indy 500
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Michael Andretti's last ride at Indy was on a golf cart.
With his wife, Leslie, balanced in his lap and his father, Mario, at the wheel, Michael took a spin through Gasoline Alley at speeds considerably slower than 200 mph.
Outwardly, he was holding up well, managing a smile and a wave for the sympathetic crowd.
Inside, his emotions were churning.
History repeats itself
How could this happen again?
The dreaded "Andretti Luck" delivered another gut-wrenching blow Sunday, knocking Michael out of the Indianapolis 500 just before the halfway point of his farewell race.
After leading for 28 laps, Andretti was helpless when an obscure engine part broke.
"I feel kind of weird right now, kind of numb," said Andretti, standing outside his garage after a 27th-place finish. "At least I know I could have won the last race of my career. I had a shot at it."
The words sounded a bit hollow. He'll head into retirement having set the Indy pace for 426 laps -- with nary a victory to show for it.
"If it's meant to happen, it's meant to happen," Andretti said. "For whatever reason, it didn't happen for me. I guess it wasn't meant to be."
No one has led more laps at Indy without winning the race. In fact, Andretti wound up just two laps behind Rick Mears, who won the 500 a record-tying four times.
Running in the family
Like father, like son.
Mario Andretti won at Indy in 1969, then spent the rest of his career in a futile quest for another victory at the Brickyard. He usually ran up front, leading 556 laps in his career, but various misfortunes led to a most common refrain, "Mario is slowing down."
For Michael, the pain runs even deeper. He never stood in Victory Lane, never swigged from the bottle of milk, never got his face on the Borg Warner Trophy.
"Same song, a different day," Mario said, struggling to contain his emotions. "The thing that is so disappointing it that was such a fluke mechanical thing in the engine, just the throttle [line] that came apart."
Michael's final moments as a driver were spent in a parked car, the crew swarming over the engine in a futile attempt to fix the problem -- a carbon copy of Mario's final race at Indy in 1994.
Within minutes, Michael climbed from his broken machine. Leslie gave him a big hug. Mario provided a shoulder to cry on.
"Why did this happen to me?" Michael asked his father.
They all jumped on the golf cart and headed to the garage, where Andretti collected his emotions and changed out of his driver's suit for the last time.
Then, he headed back to the pits to cheer on his team's other three cars. A victory by any of them would have eased the pain.
Unfortunately, the Andretti luck runs deep.