Marco Andretti, Andretti Autosport

The cast: Race engineer – Blair Perschbacher. Race strategist – Kyle Moyer. Chief mechanic – Jeff Grahn

Twitter: @MarcoAndretti, @FollowAndretti

The car: No. 25 Honda, Snapple primary sponsor

The driver: Turned 27 on March 13 … Owns his boyhood home in Bushkill Township, just outside of Nazareth, Pa., and near the home of his paternal grandparents, Mario and Dee Ann.  

Season finish: Andretti placed ninth in the Verizon IndyCar Series standings – the seventh time in his nine seasons in the top 10 (high of fifth in 2013). He was 20 points behind teammate Carlos Munoz in eighth.

The gist: The third-generation Indy car driver has competed each season for the championship-winning team owned by his father, Michael. He has made 151 consecutive Verizon IndyCar Series starts (third among active IndyCar drivers). … He has two victories, including one at Sonoma Raceway in his rookie season. … He recorded three victories in six Indy Lights starts in 2005 while also competing in Star Mazda.

Season stats: Andretti started the season by qualifying in the top 10 in the first three races and recorded two top-10 finishes, including his season high of second at Barber Motorsports Park. … He qualified sixth for the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race and finished third – his fifth top five in nine starts. … Strung together three consecutive top 10s (Houston 1 and 2, Pocono) in the middle of the season and closed with eighth- and 11th-place finishes (gaining 12 positions total from his qualifying spot). … Overall, posted nine top-10 finishes and led four races and was running at the finish in 14 races.

Year over year: 2013 top qualifying first (8.8 average), best finish third (8.9 average). 2014 top qualifying fifth (12.4 average), best finish second (12.2 average).

Video: Marco Andretti reviews his season

He said it: “We need to be better than ninth in points; we're a little disappointed. There were a lot of tough moments this year. When you look at the season, not the numbers we were hoping for but we’ll come back fighting. We'll be working to improve myself and everybody across the board.”

The chart (below): Looking at how Andretti finished relative to his qualifying position in the 18 races:

Click to download the hi-res Infographic