Indianapolis ? Dan Wheldon walks around the garage watching his back. He’s a marked man, and he knows it. At any moment, he could be ambushed by a flying pie or a fire extinguisher’s spray – or find half his driving shoes are missing.

It’s all part of membership in Team Practical Joke – also known as Andretti Green Racing.

The team’s four drivers are comedy’s version of The Beatles, always up for a practical joke and each with a unique role.

Brazil’s Tony Kanaan is the flamboyant one who brings out the best – or worst – in his teammates’ humor. Scotland’s Dario Franchitti does most of the dirty work. Wheldon, who is English and the youngest of the four drivers at 26, plays the straight man. And innocent-looking, soft-spoken American Bryan Herta is the master of deceit.

“It’s a lighthearted atmosphere around here,” Franchitti said. “It suits us and our personalities well, and when we’re in the car, we’re always trying to beat each other. It’s like going against your brother.”

This band of brothers looks like a United Nations delegation ready to make an appearance on Saturday Night Live.

And they’ll strike anytime, at any place.

As Wheldon, the IRL points leader and a three-time winner this season, prepared to race last month in Japan, his teammates stole the furniture from his hotel room and the left driving shoe from each of Wheldon’s pairs. That was all Kanaan, Herta and Franchitti would admit to.

“We were going to mail the shoes back to the United States,” Herta said. “But we thought the other things we did were so bad, we decided to give them back.”

From celebrating birthdays with smashed pies to sawing through mountain bikes on live television, Michael Andretti’s four-man team is as adept at pulling jokes as it is at winning races.

Indy racing league teammates Tony Kanaan, left, and Dan Wheldon watch practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The two, along with teammates Dario Franchitti and Bryan Herta, are well-known as practical jokesters on the IRL circuit.

So far the camaraderie has worked better than anyone, perhaps even Andretti, anticipated.

Kim Green, who co-owns the team with Andretti, said he never had been around a more friendly group of drivers – even if they sometimes pushed the limits.

“When I’m on the radio with Tony, the first thing he asks is how did Dario do? How did Bryan do? How did Dan do?” Green said. “I think sometimes the pranks go to an extreme. But on the track, they challenge each other.”

Kanaan won the IRL points title last season. Wheldon has won three of four races this year. Sunday, Kanaan delivered an Indianapolis 500 pole-winning run – Andretti’s first as a team owner. Franchitti qualified sixth, Wheldon 16th and Herta 18th.

The four drivers of Honda-powered cars also hold three of the top four spots, and four of the top nine, in the points standings. In four races, they’ve combined for 10 top-five finishes, including seven in the top three.

The one missing link has been Indianapolis, the track where the Andretti family has had so much bad luck. Although Kanaan, Wheldon and Herta finished second, third and fourth in last year’s Indianapolis 500, the four drivers have combined for only one other top-five finish in 10 career Indy starts. Kanaan was third on the 21â2-mile oval in 2003.

They’re hoping for better luck this year – and that’s no joke.

“I think every year that I come here is the year,” Kanaan said Sunday after winning the pole. “You know, maybe this is the year, maybe not. I think Michael had that every year, this was his year, and he never got it.”

Changing history, and winning an Indy 500, won’t stop their antics.

Franchitti’s 32nd birthday is today, and he was preparing for the worst. Last year, he responded to the pie-in-the face routine by sawing through Kanaan’s $5,000 mountain bike – while Kanaan was a guest analyst on ESPN.

“I saw him with the bike and with the saw, and I was like, ‘He’s not going to do it.’ Then he did it,” Kanaan said. “He bought me a new one with the money he got from starting on the front row.”

Occasionally, ideas backfire.

In another April incident at Japan, Kanaan sprayed Herta in the face with a fire extinguisher as he entered the garage. Kanaan insists it was unintentional, but Herta doubts it.

As for Wheldon, well, he figures something will happen this month.

“I’m normally the one that’s being pranked,” he said. “But I enjoy it.”

He’d better. The results have been too good – and, after all, it’s just too much fun.

“Today it will be you, tomorrow it will be me,” Kanaan said. “You never know what’s going to happen, and you’ve always got to watch out for yourself.”