HARRISBURG, N.C. — Marco had carried that name around for 19 years or so, but now, as he prepares for his second Indianapolis 500, he knows — he really, really knows — what it means to be an Andretti.
Like so many Andrettis before him, he has had his heart broken by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, joining grandfather Mario, assorted uncles and cousins and the king of Indy heartache, dad Michael, in the family business of obsession.
So, this May, Marco will strap himself once again into the Dallara-Honda Mystery Machine and begin chasing the family ghosts around the beloved and cursed Brickyard.
“It’s going to bother me ‘til the end of my career, even if I win that thing four times,” the younger Andretti said of last year’s race, just as May got under way. “The race is so huge, especially for our family. I explain it to my friends. There’s no Grand Prix or single race that’s as big as that. That’s the biggest race in the world.”
The biggest race in the world — and Marco was right there, ready to ease if not erase so many bad family memories. It was his first Indy 500 and only his fourth IRL IndyCar start and coming out of turn four, he had the lead. He could see the yard of bricks and eternal glory, but Sam Hornish, Jr. had gotten too close.
And as has been the case so many times at Indy for so many Andrettis before him . . . “It just slipped away,” he said. “Of course, it’s going to bother me. I’m a competitor.”
A year ago, it slipped away on the back straightaway, coming off the final turn of the final lap. Hornish had been closing in on Marco and got just close enough to set up and win a drag race to the finish line.
“If you say the better car should have won, then that’s what happened. . . . But the way we lost it, leading out of turn four, kind of bothers me,” Marco said.
The same way it kind of bothers his father still that his fuel pump died when his closest challenger was nearly 2.5 miles behind him.
The same way that it kind of bothers Michael, who finished third last year, that he has led 430 laps at Indy — more than anyone else who has never  won.
Hornish got a cold drink of milk, yet another Indy victory for Roger Penske and the Borg-Warner Trophy. Marco got the Rookie of the Year award and yet another chapter to add to the family Indy horror saga as consolation prizes, thank you very much.
It just slipped away.
The Andretti scorebook reads something like, Indy 54, Andrettis 1 — and that discounts the nightmarish flip and crash Mario survived somehow unscathed during a practice session in 2002. It also discounts Michael’s victory as Dan Wheldon’s car owner. If that meant so much, Michael wouldn’t be back again this year at 44, taking a second shot after his “retirement.” He is hoping fate’s nasty side is done with him. He’s willing to go spend the month of May back in the haunted house if it means the chance of a payoff at the end.
On Pole Day, all five Andretti Green Racing teams, including Marco’s, qualified for this year’s running of the Indianapolis 500. Marco shook off early season failures to make the biggest race in the world.
After all the horrors, maybe Indy owes the Andrettis and is willing to pay up for the first time since Mario won in 1969.
Maybe he’s due. Or maybe Marco is.
“I don’t know what’s worse, losing it the way I did or, in dad’s case, almost a lap on the field and with 10 to go, the car breaks,” Marco said, looking back at last year. “I wouldn’t say it owes me. I’m still young. We still got time.”
Maybe this time that will be enough.  Maybe it won’t just slip away.