Hunter-Reay hopes to turn season around at Iowa Speedway

By Jul 17, 2019, 8:00 AM EDT
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NEWTON, Iowa – It’s not that Ryan Hunter-Reay is having a bad season, it’s that it has so far been “under the radar.”

The popular driver from Florida is usually involved in some fierce battles at the front of the NTT IndyCar Series. After his 16th-place finish in Sunday’s Honda Indy Toronto, he is seventh in the standings, 149 points behind the leader, Josef Newgarden with only six races remaining.

Luckily for Hunter-Reay, one of those contests is on one of his better race tracks – the .875-of-a-mile Iowa Speedway short oval.

Watch the Iowa 300 live on NBCSN on Saturday at 7 p.m. Eastern Time.

Hunter-Reay has three wins and five podiums (top-three) in 11 starts. He drove to victory in 2012, 2014 and 2015 and was third in 2017. He started third at Iowa last year but finished 19th, dropping out with suspension failure after 283 laps in the 300-lap contest.

“We’ve got three wins there; hoping to make it four,” Hunter-Reay told NBC Sports.com. “I love that track. We’ve had a difficult time there lately. Hopefully, this team as a whole can get back to our winning ways there.

“Short oval racing is always very difficult, especially with the bumps at Iowa. It’s difficult to get the setup right and the teams have a lot of respect for that because of that reason.”

Iowa is the middle race of a very important three-straight weekends of racing in the NTT IndyCar Series. It began with last Sunday’s Honda Indy Toronto and concludes with the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio on July 28 before taking another break.

“Three-in-a-row, mid-season, can definitely turn the whole season around,” Hunter-Reay said. “We’re all thinking wins right now. Newgarden has the most wins right now, and we all have to fight that gap, plus the lead two drivers have to trip up as well.

“You have to come into the season ready to go and be ready week-in and week-out.”

Newgarden has a four-point lead over Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi.

While those drivers are leading the battle, the other contenders in the championship such as Indy 500, INDYCAR GP and Toronto winner Simon Pagenaud, Scott Dixon and Will Power have to “win or else.”

To some race fans who say, “Isn’t that the point of racing – to win?” When an IndyCar driver says that, it means racing with bolder moves and strategy.

It means playing offense more than defense.

“We are taking more risks,” Hunter-Reay explained. “At this point, you are gambling more on strategy, you are taking moves you otherwise wouldn’t do if you were points racing.

“For us, we are focusing on winning. We had two wins in 2018. Our last win was 10 races ago, so we need to get back to it.”

Hunter-Reay continues to fight back from a season-opening 23rdat St. Petersburg when he dropped out of the race with mechanical issues. He also finished 17thin the INDYCAR Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Other than that, his season has been solid with a third-place finish at Circuit of the Americas in March as his best finish of the season.

In June, Hunter-Reay had reasonable month including a fifth-place and fourth-place in the two races that make up the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix, a fifth at Texas Motor Speedway and an 11that Road America.

But this is Ryan Hunter-Reay, the man called “Captain America” of IndyCar at one point because he was the first driver from the United States to win the IndyCar title in 2012 since Sam Hornish, Jr. in 2006. When he won the Indianapolis 500 in 2014, he was the first driver from the USA to claim that since Hornish, also in 2006.

Since his Indy 500 win in 2014, some top drivers from America are challenging him for that title including 2017 NTT IndyCar Series champion Josef Newgarden of Hendersonville, Tennessee and the spectacular emergence of 100thIndianapolis 500 winning driver and weekly thrill-show star Alexander Rossi of Nevada City, California.

“We’ve been in the top-five quite a bit this year, we just have to break through,” Hunter-Reay said. “At Road America, we had a fast car all weekend, but qualifying went pear-shaped. We started 15th, fell back to 18th, then had to fight our way to try to get into the top-10.

“We have to start up front and finish up front.

“I need to get the job done behind the wheel.”

 

After New York whirlwind, Josef Newgarden makes special trip to simulator before Detroit

By Jun 2, 2023, 10:00 AM EDT
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DETROIT – There’s no rest for the weary as an Indy 500 winner, but Josef Newgarden discovered there are plenty of extra laps.

The reigning Indy 500 champion added an extra trip Wednesday night back to Concord, N.C., for one last session on the GM Racing simulator before Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.

After a 30-year run on the Belle Isle course, the race has been moved to a nine-turn, 1.7-mile layout downtown, so two extra hours on the simulator were worth it for Newgarden.

INDYCAR IN DETROIT: Entry list, schedule, TV info for this weekend

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“I really wanted to do it,” he told NBC Sports at a Thursday media luncheon. “If there’s any time that the sim is most useful, it’s in this situation when no one has ever been on a track, and we’re able to simulate it as best as we can. We want to get some seat time.

“It’s extra important coming off the Indy 500 because you’ve been out of rhythm for a road or street course-type environment, so I really wanted some laps. I was really appreciative to Chevy. There was a few guys that just came in and stayed late for me so I could get those laps before coming up here. I don’t know if it’s going to make a difference, but I feel like it’s going to help for me.”

After a whirlwind tour of New York for two days, Newgarden arrived at the simulator (which is at the GM Racing Technical Center adjacent to Hendrick Motorsports) in time for a two hour session that started at 6 p.m. Wednesday. He stayed overnight in Charlotte and then was up for an early commercial flight to Detroit, where he had more media obligations.

Newgarden joked that if he had a jet, he would have made a quick stop in Nashville, Tennessee, but a few more days away from home (where he has yet to return in weeks) is a worthy tradeoff for winning the Greatest Spectacle in Racing – though the nonstop interviews can take a toll.

“It’s the hardest part of the gig for me is all this fanfare and celebration,” Newgarden said. “I love doing it because I’m so passionate about the Indy 500 and that racetrack and what that race represents. I feel honored to be able to speak about it. It’s been really natural and easy for me to enjoy it because I’ve been there for so many years.

“Speaking about this win has been almost the easiest job I’ve ever had for postrace celebrations. But it’s still for me a lot of work. I get worn out pretty easily. I’m very introverted. So to do this for three days straight, it’s been a lot.”

Though he is terrified of heights, touring the top of the Empire State Building for the first time was a major highlight (and produced the tour’s most viral moment).

“I was scared to get to the very top level,” Newgarden said. “That thing was swaying. No one else thought it was swaying. I’m pretty sure it was. I really impressed by the facility. I’d never seen it before. It’s one of those bucket list things. If you go to New York, it’s really special to do that. So to be there with the wreath and the whole setup, it just felt like an honor to be in that moment.”

Now the attention shifts to Detroit and an inaugural circuit that’s expected to be challenging. Along with a Jefferson Avenue straightaway that’s 0.9 miles long, the track has several low-speed corners and a “split” pit lane (teams will stop on both sides of a rectangular area) with a narrow exit that blends just before a 90-degree lefthand turn into Turn 1.

Newgarden thinks the track is most similar to the Music City Grand Prix in Nashville.

“It’s really hard to predict with this stuff until we actually run,” he said. “Maybe we go super smooth and have no issues. Typically when you have a new event, you’re going to have some teething issues. That’s understandable. We’ve always got to massage the event to get it where we want it, but this team has worked pretty hard. They’ve tried to get feedback constantly on what are we doing right, what do we need to look out for. They’ve done a ton of grinding to make sure this surface is in as good of shape as possible.

“There’s been no expense spared, but you can’t foresee everything. I have no idea how it’s going to race. I think typically when you look at a circuit that seems simple on paper, people tend to think it’s not going to be an exciting race, or challenging. I find the opposite always happens when we think that way. Watch it be the most exciting, chaotic, entertaining race.

Newgarden won the last two pole positions at Belle Isle’s 2.35-mile layout and hopes to continue the momentum while avoiding any post-Brickyard letdown.

“I love this is an opportunity for us to get something right quicker than anyone else,” he said. “A new track is always exciting from that standpoint. I feel I’m in a different spot. I’m pretty run down. I’m really trying to refocus and gain some energy back for tomorrow. Which I’ll have time to today, which is great.

“I don’t want that Indy 500 hangover. People always talk about it. They’ve always observed it. That doesn’t mean we have to win this weekend, but I’d like to leave here feeling like we had a really complete event, did a good job and had a solid finish leading into the summer. I want to win everywhere I go, but if we come out of here with a solid result and no mistakes, then probably everyone will be happy with it.”