Andretti gave me opportunity, stability - Rossi

"I think it's a wonderful opportunity to be able to have that stability, continuity going into an upcoming season," Rossi said after setting the second-fastest time in opening practice at Watkins Glen.

"It's kind of easy to get caught up in what's happening [with contract situations]. You can start to kind of lose morale at times among the team because there's just the unknown, right? They know you're talking to other teams. It's a difficult situation for everyone involved."

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Rossi started the season off with sub-top-10 finishes at St. Petersburg, Long Beach and Phoenix. But with new race engineer Jeremy Milless and technical director Eric Bretzman, Rossi currently sits seventh in the Verizon IndyCar Series standings with four top-five finishes and nine top-10s in 2017, including a runner-up finish at Toronto, third at Pocono and a pair of fifths at Barber and Belle Isle 1.

"We had some technical issues that didn't go our way [to start the year], we had some incidents. Just kind of racing scenarios. That's just the way it goes," he said.

"It was a difficult start because it was a new relationship, had a new engineer, new strategist, new technical director. It wasn't the dream start to 2017. But through that, we learned from our mistakes. One thing that I'm very adamant about within the whole team, from a mechanical, engineering, driving standpoint, I don't want to make mistakes twice. We learned from those early on, we're very cognizant of making sure that doesn't happen again.

"I think we started to see the fruits of that the past five, six races. The strength that we have from a car performance standpoint is really astounding. You talk about the improvements I made. It's making me look good this year. I know the tracks now, which is a big help, but also the car is in a much different place. We know the improvements that Honda made in the off-season. That's been very apparent on a lot of the street courses as well. All the factors were better. I'm glad we're seeing obviously improved results."

"You want to be better than your teammate, right? But not only did I have [Ryan Hunter-Reay] as a benchmark, if you will, but I had his wealth of knowledge that he's acquired," Rossi said.

"Obviously the way that the team works, I know that it's talked about a lot, but it's very difficult to really get the point across of how open everyone is. [Ryan] would sit down with me through scenarios, walk me through steps of what needed to be different in order to get better results. So not only do you have a benchmark of someone that's obviously incredibly talented, but you have his help as well. I know it to him, I owe it to Marco, I owe it to Carlos last year, Takuma this year. All the teammates I have, all of the engineers that are involved in the program, help one another.

"As a driver, they've helped me improve on track in a huge amount. Off track, as well. I mean, this was a very new environment for me coming into 2016, into this championship. Being taught to do things a certain way was very much part of my background. Then having the team really kind of understand that and embrace that.

"I think a lot of that comes from Michael having had experience over in Europe, knowing what transitions are like. The whole organization was just able to, in a constructive way, help me get better with that, help me get better on track, help me understand ovals. There were a lot of new things in a very short period of time. There was a lot of key contributors to helping me get adjusted here and to be in a place where we could start to have success.

"In terms of making the decision for 2017, that had a lot to do with it. Gave me an opportunity to come race in this championship, a championship I've fallen in love with. They gave me an opportunity to win the Indianapolis 500, a race that is now my favorite race in the world. Now we're getting results at the other types of tracks. Everything is positive within the team."