Copyright © IMS/Ron McQueeney

Marco Andretti made it 2-for-2 on road/street courses in the IRL Menards Infiniti Pro Series™.

Andretti, the grandson of racing legend Mario Andretti and son of IRL IndyCar® Series team owner Michael Andretti, won the inaugural Liberty Challenge at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was his second win in three starts this season.

“I had the car to do it, that’s for darn sure,” said Andretti, who also won the first non-oval event at the Menards Infiniti Pro Series Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in April from the pole. “(Engineer) Tony (Cicale) and the guys set up an awesome car. Like I was telling them, I never had a better in my career yet, so far. Right to the flag, it was consistent and it showed with the lap times.”

Copyright © IMS/Ron McQueeney

Andretti’s No. 26 Vonage Dallara/Infiniti/Firestone was challenged only once during the 25-lap event. Jeff Simmons, who started third, took the lead on the opening corner, but missed the second corner, handing the lead back to pole sitter Andretti.

From there, Andretti pulled away for his family’s first win at Indianapolis since his grandfather won the Indianapolis 500 in 1969.

“It’s big, but to me right now it’s another race track until I get on the oval in the IndyCar (Series),” said Andretti, who is running a partial schedule in the IRL’s top ladder series.

Copyright © IMS/Ron McQueeney

Wade Cunningham recorded his fourth consecutive second-place finish and took over the series point lead. The rookie from New Zealand leads Travis Gregg 227-217 with eight races remaining. Gregg, who started ninth, improved two positions to finish seventh. Rookies Chris Festa, Nick Bussell and Futaba Freedom 100 winner Jaime Camara rounded out the top five.

“Once (Andretti) had broken away, I just couldn’t catch him,” Cunningham said. “Once he got that big lead, it was all over and I struggled for the rest of the race just with car balance. The car stuck together, and the team did a great job.”

Festa earned the FedEx Express Hard Charger Award, improving three spots from his sixth-place starting position.

Simmons retired on Lap 13 due to an engine problem. He finished 13^th.

The next Menards Infiniti Pro Series event is the Cleanevent 100 on July 16 at Nashville Superspeedway.