The 21-year-old Andretti, who started from the pole on Sunday for the first time in his IndyCar career, and 19-year-old rookie Rahal, starting from the outside of the front row in only the fourth oval race of his career, crashed in separate incidents during the ABC Supply A.J. Foyt 225.
Rahal stayed among the top four from the start. He was third on lap 130 of the 225-lap event when he slowed abruptly to avoid hitting the lapped car of Darren Manning, slid up the track and slammed into the outside wall.
"He previously had kind of been all over the track anyway, so I was struggling to get by him," Rahal said, referring to Manning. "I don't think the officials were doing enough to help the leaders with the traffic. It was definitely tough."
He added, "I was going to hit him if I didn't move. I didn't think I was too wide. Once I was in the marbles, I was fully off the throttle and the brakes, but I couldn't get it to turn. It's unfortunate."
Andretti led the first 40 laps of the race, but struggled with handling after that, falling out of contention.
Four laps from the end, he collided with Ed Carpenter and the two slammed into the wall. Vitor Meira than ran over Andretti's car, flying through the air before he too hit the wall.
"We were racing and things like this happen," Andretti said. "It's just a real shame because we could have had some decent points today."
Carpenter echoed Andretti, saying, "It was nothing but hard racing there at the end of the race. I was running seventh, I think, and trying to pass (Oriol) Servia for sixth. ... I kind of let Marco get up on me and then started racing Marco for my position. ... It's a tough track and he pushed up into me. He apologized. We are all good."
Meira also crashed in Saturday's qualifying and had to start last in the 26-car field.
"Everyone was racing hard behind me and I was waiting," last week's Indy 500 runner-up said. "Marco and Carpenter got together and I couldn't see anything in front of me, so I stepped on the brake and hoped for the best."
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MAKING UP GROUND: Three of the nine drivers making the transition from the defunct Champ Car World Series to the newly unified IndyCar Series wound up with top-10 finishes Sunday.
Oriol Servia had the best day, finishing sixth, the last car on the lead lap. Justin Wilson and E.J. Viso were seventh and eighth, both a lap down to the leaders.
It was a particularly good performance by Servia, the most experienced oval driver among the newcomers. After having to replace the most of his car and losing a lap early in the race, the Spaniard charged back, regaining the lost lap and moving into contention.
"My last two or three times in this place (with Champ Car) I had been on the podium," Servia said. "So I was hoping it was going to happen again. But this sixth today, coming from last, feels like (a podium finish) for sure.
"It was really tough, but the whole race was just keeping fighting, keep fighting," the Spaniard added. "Every pit stop we gained spots. After the restarts we gained spots."
He said the 225-mile race was more tiring than usual because of the circumstances.
"Usually, I don't get tired on the ovals, but because of the type of racing I had to do every lap, and because when we changed the wing, for some reason we lost water. I was really struggling there at the end."
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HAT MAN: Roger Penske celebrated his team's 300th race victory Sunday, thanks to the first IndyCar win by Ryan Briscoe.
The Captain showed up at the postrace press conference wearing a white hat with the red-stitched inscription "300th."
"It must be a big deal because we've got a hat made," Penske said, grinning. "I guess they have been carrying these around on the haulers. They told me today."
It was the third victory for Penske this season. Ryan Newman gave him his first Daytona 500 win in February's NASCAR Sprint Cup event, and the trio of Romain Dumas, Timo Bernard and Emmanuel Collard won the 12 Hours of Sebring ALMS sports car race for the team.
"I really think it shows the amount of work that has been done by so many people on the team, so many good drivers, so many good crews, all the way back," Penske said.
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SPARK PLUGS: Briscoe's average speed in winning Sunday was 133.428 mph. ... The victory came in his 26th IndyCar start, dating to 2005. ... Despite a 26-car field that produced heavy traffic on the one-mile oval Sunday, 21 cars were running at the finish. ... Runner-up Scott Dixon, the Indy 500 winner, heads to Texas next week leading the IRL IndyCar Series standings by 28 points over Helio Castroneves, who finished fifth on Sunday.
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