Last Sunday, as Helio Castroneves shed tears of joy after winning the pole for the Indianapolis 500, John Andretti enjoyed one of the rare weekends off from the Winston Cup schedule.

Well, maybe not enjoyed. After all, he'd have given up every moment of relaxation to be at the Brickyard trying to qualify for the May 25 Indy 500. Andretti, after all, comes from a family of open-wheel racers and has run the race himself.

	Winston Cup driver John Andretti will not run in this season's Indianapolis 500.

This year, a sponsorship conflict is preventing him from trying to run the double duty of the Indy 500 by day and NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 by night. That, combined with what he called a shortage of rides for the big event, has got Andretti -- nephew of the great Mario -- stuck in North Carolina while the rest of his family hangs in Indianapolis.

"I'll be back there some year," Andretti said. "It may not be this year, but it'll be some year."

Andretti is excited about his role as driver of the No. 43 Dodge for Richard and Kyle Petty. It's a car he's driven for more than five seasons -- experiencing little success, but all the while believing in the Petty approach and remaining confident the team is headed in the right direction.

His desire to run at Indy has nothing to do with a conflict with the Pettys. In fact, allowing Andretti to compete in the Indy 500 is part of his contract with Petty Enterprises. And making his desire to be at Indy stronger is the fact that this is the last Indy 500 that Andretti's cousin, Michael, will run. This year, Michael owns four cars in the race, too.

After this season, Michael will be competing at Indy only as an owner. And there's a piece of John that, while maneuvering the 1.5-mile speedway in Concord, N.C., will wish he had been in Indy to witness his cousin's last dance.

"I'd still like to run it (Indy 500)," Andretti said. "We were saying we'll see if we're going to do it or not, but at the end of last year we sat down and said, 'Is this something we're going to do or not?' ... Right now, it's not in the best position it's been in.

"I would love to be there, though, because it's Michael's last race. I spoke to him, and he swears it's his last race."

In his first season with Petty Enterprises, Andretti finished 11th in the standings. That marked his peak with the team. Since, he's finished 17th, 23rd, 31st and 28th. This season, he's 31st.

Many in the garage believe the biggest problem with that team isn't Andretti, but rather the support he gets from the team. Kyle Petty indicated he realized the organization needed to get Andretti better equipment if it wanted to keep him around. All of this made some wonder if he would be willing to leave the team over not being able to run the Indy 500.

But Andretti remains as optimistic as he was before last season -- when he said, "Kyle has got a real target on where he sees Petty Enterprises going. It makes a lot of sense to me, and I agree with it all. It's easy to stay with a team when you agree with their philosophies. No team is perfect, even the guy who wins the championship has problems, but I think our problems are solvable."

His hopes were temporarily backed up two races ago when, after going nine races without a top-10, he scored an eighth-place finish at Fontana, Calif. Though he finished three laps down in 30th the next weekend at Richmond, Va., he isn't disgruntled.

"I am excited to see where our program has come from and where it is," Andretti said. "I think it gave a lot of confidence to the employees at Petty Enterprises. Look at what we can do, and look and see what we are capable of doing."

Andretti will be showing his capabilities at Lowe's Motor Speedway over the next couple weeks. But even as he looks forward to that opportunity, don't think he doesn't wish he was able to race alongside his cousin and follow in the footsteps of his father, Aldo, and Uncle Mario.

"It's Indy," he said. "I want to get back there."

Rupen Fofaria covers NASCAR for The Raleigh News & Observer and is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at rups@theraces.com.