Marco reportedly "caught the racing bug" at the tender age of four when his father, Michael, won the CART season championship in 1991. By 1997, age ten, he was ready to start out in the world of karting. After compiling several regional series championships, Marco moved up to the national karting scene in 2002, where he quickly made a name for himself with several victories.

By 2003 Marco was ready to move up to cars. Joining the Skip Barber Dodge Eastern Series, he won eight races en route to the series championship and Rookie of the Year honors. 2004 saw him take championships in the Skip Barber Formula Dodge Southern Series and the Skip Barber national Series. For 2005 Marco ran a limited schedule in the Indy Pro Series, winning three times and gaining two other podium finishes in only six starts. He also drove in the Star Mazda Championship, notching three top fivie finishes.

By 2006 father Michael thought that young Marco (who had just turned nineteen) was ready for the INdyCar Series, and signed him to Andretti-Green Racing. After a lackluster first few races, Marco stunned - and impressed - the racing world with a stellar drive in the '06 Indy 500, being edged out at the finish line by Sam Hornish Jr. Later in the year Marco would claim his first - and, so far, only - IRL victory at the road course in Sonoma, CA.

The "sophmore slump" would plauge the young Andretti in 2007. Although he would place second twice and notch four other top five finishes, the rest of the seventeen race schedule would be marked by crashes and mechanical gremlins, and Marco would finish a distant eleventh in the championship standings. 

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