Andretti Autosport finishes 1-2 at Iowa
Hunter-Reay claims second consecutive win in 2012
Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport Chevrolet takes the win
XPB Images
Ryan Hunter-Reay is the winner of today's Iowa Corn Indy 250 at Iowa Speedway, driving the Team DHL / Sun Drop Citrus Soda Chevrolet for Andretti Autosport . Hunter-Reay started from the seventh position.
This is the seventh career Indy car victory for Hunter-Reay, a 31-year-old resident of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. This is his second consecutive win in the 2012 season.
This is his fourth win with Andretti Autosport, and is his third consecutive season with a victory. He extends his distinction of being the winningest active American driver in the IndyCar Series.
Ryan Hunter-Reay, Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda Chevrolet, No. 28
Hunter-Reay claimed victory today in Iowa after starting the Iowa Corn Indy 250 from the seventh position. This is the second consecutive win for the American-born driver and his seventh career victory. Hunter-Reay led 15 laps, making the winning pass on Scott Dixon on lap 238.
"That was very challenging. We were sliding around a little bit more today. I have to thank Marco (Andretti) and his team. They came here and tested, and we ended up putting Marco's set-up on the car. When we came here, we tweaked it just a little. From there, we basically raced with what he tested with. We got another win for DHL and Sun Drop, and we've got Andretti Autosport and Chevy back on top. Marco and I raced really hard out there, really clean. It's great to have a teammate like that and we're just so happy to be in Victory Lane twice in a row. The team's working really well together so it's great to get another win for the 28 team. Two in a row is a game changer, and it means we need to start running up here more often, and continue to put performances like tonight together... The communication's great, the atmosphere among the entire team is the best it's been since I've been here, for sure. We're clicking - we're clicking as a group. We have to be consistent. we have to go week- in and week-out, consistently strong and being in the top-five for sure, every weekend."
Marco Andretti, Team RC Cola Chevrolet, No. 26
Andretti finished second at the Iowa Corn Indy 250 after starting from the third position. It is his best finish of the 2012 season, and he led three laps in addition to spending nearly the entire race in the top-five. This also marks the second consecutive race that Andretti Autosport has placed two cars in the top-three.
"It was a lot of fun, and the car came alive in the second stint. I think we, in hindsight, could have taken another turn of the front wing and been really hard to beat at the end, but we kept the car how it is, and I kind of ran out of tools at the end and had a lot of understeer. Tonight was a great team effort, definitely a statement from Andretti Autosport that we are back on top, and congrats to Ryan (Hunter-Reay). Two-in-a-row for the team, two-in-a-row at Iowa. It's a good day for the team, but for me I'm a little disappointed to come up short."
James Hinchcliffe, Team GoDaddy.com Chevrolet, No. 27
Hinchcliffe started tonight's race from fourth and led 19 laps early in the 250-lap race. His night ended early after making contact with the wall in Turn 4 on Lap 196. He is scored with a 17th-place finish.
"On the restart there, we'd been understeering all night, which is sort of the weird thing about it. We pulled in for the stop and it's just one of those things. The dirty air there behind Ryan (Hunter-Reay) making passes towards the front, and the cars had been running better on the bottom all night so I was able to take that high line like a lot of guys were and tuck it down there and try to follow Katherine's (Legge) groove. The car snapped once, snapped twice and I almost got it and then it went around.
I feel bad for the Go Daddy guys, obviously the cars are running really well and I thought we had a good shot at winning this thing, and I just feel bad for the guys on the 27 team, but super happy for Ryan on his second win in a row, and congrats to Marco (Andretti) on his podium tonight."
Source: Andretti Autosport
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