IndyCar 2017 team preview: Andretti Autosport - MotorSportsTalk

MotorSportsTalk looks through the teams competing in the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season. Although Andretti Autosport dominated the month of May at Indianapolis and scored the victory in the 100th Indianapolis 500, it was the lone bright spot in an otherwise challenging campaign. An engineering and partial driver reset beckons for 2017.

Drivers (Engineer, Strategist)

26-Takuma Sato (Garrett Mothershead, Paul “Ziggy” Harcus)
27-Marco Andretti (Nathan O’Rourke, Bryan Herta)
28-Ryan Hunter-Reay (Ray Gosselin both)
98-Alexander Rossi (Jeremy Milless, Rob Edwards)

Manufacturer/aero kit: Honda

Sponsors: Panasonic (No. 26), hhgregg (No. 27), DHL (No. 28), NAPA Auto Parts, CURB Records (No. 98)

Rossi has a year's worth of IndyCar experience. Photo: IndyCar — Rossi has a year’s worth of IndyCar experience. Photo: IndyCar

What went right in 2016: The month of May at Indianapolis. Otherwise, not much in a year the team would otherwise rather forget.

What went wrong in 2016: Pretty much everything other than the month of May at Indianapolis, and Sonoma when the team finally found a spark in performance. Ryan Hunter-Reay’s efforts at a handful of oval races, in particular, were wasted.

Marco Andretti is among those who need a bounce back year. Photo: IndyCar

What’s changed for 2017: Lots. Eric Bretzman should guide the team as new technical director. Alexander Rossi has both a year of experience now under his belt along with both a new strategist and race engineer. Marco Andretti reunites with Bryan Herta, now on his box. And Takuma Sato replaces Carlos Munoz as fourth driver. Michael Andretti moves off the strategist box. There’s a lot to meld here but also the usual upside of potential.

What they’ll look to accomplish in 2017: Greater consistency in both qualifying and races and a return to victory lane in other races. Hunter-Reay’s dogged determination is the hallmark of his career and he should be back to scoring at least one win. Rossi will seek further podiums and wins, while Andretti and Sato will look to break out of the proverbial midpack and match their ability level with some results.

Sato joins Andretti Autosport. Photo: IndyCar

MST PREDICTIONS

Tony DiZinno: It’s hard to see more than two of the four drivers here winning based on recent performance, and with how few tracks the Honda package has a clear advantage. That said, I could see both Hunter-Reay and Rossi winning this year, and if the cards fall right on strategy, Andretti or Sato could steal a win. Hunter-Reay and Rossi will enter the top-10 in points and the other two will be back on the podium this year after challenging 2016 seasons.

Kyle Lavigne: Andretti Autosport had an astounding juxtaposition of results in 2016. They had the dominant package at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but could barely get out of their own way at Iowa Speedway. Ryan Hunter-Reay scored strong results at St. Petersburg, Detroit, and Road America, but most of the road and street races left a lot to be desired.

All told, fixing their street course program may be the most important aspect to their 2017 season. It proved to be their Achilles’ heel in 2016 and dramatically set them back in the championship.

If they perform like they’re capable of on those circuits, Ryan Hunter-Reay could again become a championship contender while Alexander Rossi could become a regular front runner. Takuma Sato has has always been fast and may challenge for podiums, but questionable driving decisions and a multitude of crashes have hampered his career and it’s hard to imagine him breaking that habit this late into his career. Marco Andretti will be happy to leave 2016 behind and should bounce back in 2017, especially on the ovals.

Luke Smith: Andretti is one of the hardest teams to peg given its varying form throughout 2016. Consistency and stability are what Michael Andretti will want from his team this year; quite whether it will arrive is another story.

Ryan Hunter-Reay will be the lead man once again, and should nab a victory or two. Alexander Rossi needs to prove himself this year after – Indy 500 victory aside – a so-so debut campaign. Marco Andretti and Takuma Sato are both in recovery mode after horrible 2016s, but I don’t see things changing a great deal for them. If either can hit the podium, it would be a big breakthrough.

Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan — *Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports*

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

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