Power players: Andretti-Green

By Andrew Cutler
January 12 2008

In 1993 Barry Green and Gerald Forsythe founded a CART Atlantic series team with the express purpose of bringing rising star Jacques Villenuve up the develpement ladder and into CART. When Forsythe left the squad the following year, Green brought his brother, Kim, into the team as manager.

1994 was also the year that the team - then known as Team Green - moved up to CART. Villenuve would drive for them for two years, winning Indy and the series championship in 1995 before making the jump to F1. After a couple more years as a one car effort, they expanded to two cars in 1998, with Paul Tracy and Dario Franchitti remaining as team mates for the next five seasons.

In 2001 veteran CART driver Michael Andretti became something of an "associate" member of the squad: while his one car effort was offically known as Team Motorola, Kim Green handled most management operations. By 2003 Michael had purchased a majority stake in Team Green, merging his team with theirs, re-naming it Andretti-Green Racing & moving the whole squad from the CART ranks to the rival IRL. Barry Green left, as did driver Paul Tracy, who was replaced by Tony Kanaan. Michael and Kim brought in long-time motorsports marketing expert Kevin Savoree to handle all sponsorship/promotions affairs: later on they would make him a full partner in the team.

Kanaan would find victory lane once in 2003, while the team was still finding it's way in the IRL. By 2004 Andretti-Green had expanded to become a four car operation with Fanchitti, Kanaan, Dan Wheldon (who replaced Michael after the '03 Indy 500) and former CART driver Brian Herta. This line-up would last for two seasons, compiling an impressive tally of nineteen wins and two consecutive series championships; one for Kanaan in '04 and one for Wheldon in '05.

After the 2005 champaign ended Dan Wheldon annouced that he was moving over to the Ganassi squad and at the end of 2006 Brian Herta gave up his IRL ride for a full-time seat in Andretti-Green's American Le Mans Series car. They were replaced by rookie Marco Andretti and 3rd year driver Danica Patrick, respectively. After a somewhat lean '06 - one victory each for Kanaan & Andretti, the squad found it's form again in 2007 with Kanaan taking five wins and Franchitti taking four and the series championship. He then annouced that he would leave the IRL to try his luck in NASCAR. Dario's replacement for '08 will be rookie Hideki Mutoh.