Tag Archives: Ryan Hunter-Reay

IZOD IndyCar Series Season Preview: Andretti Autosport

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andretti autosport logo# 1 RYAN HUNTER-REAY

Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 1 Andretti Autosport Chevrolet# 5 EJ VISO (IN CONJUNCTION WITH HVM RACING)

EJ VISO 2012 SEBRING# 25 MARCO ANDRETTI

Marco Andretti, No. 25 Andretti Autosport Chevrolet# 27 JAMES HINCHCLIFFE

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE 2013CAR NUMBERS: 1, 5, 25, 27, TBA (CARLOS MUNOZ; INDIANAPOLIS ONLY)

SPONSORS: DHL, SUN DROP, CITGO, RC COLA, GODADDY.COM

ENGINE: CHEVROLET

Andretti Autosport enters the 2013 IndyCar campaign as the defending IZOD IndyCar Series Champions but find a long road ahead of them on their journey to repeat.  While Ryan Hunter-Reay’s amazing 2012 campaign has been well documented, it almost completely overshadowed the struggles of the other two members of the team.

Ryan Hunter-Reay 2013 shot

When Ryan Hunter-Reay returns to the grid in St. Petersburg he will be thrust immediately into the defense of his title.  By no means should Hunter-Reay’s title be cast aside as lucky or fortunate as he finished the season with a daring win at Baltimore and finished finale at Auto Club Speedway while his rival found the Turn 2 wall.  That being said, Hunter-Reay has the bullseye of the #1 affixed to his DW12 for 2013 and the entire field will be coming after him.  He and his team must do it better this year if he’s to win consecutive championships.  It will be incredibly difficult for Hunter-Reay to have back-to-back five win seasons which he needed to counterbalance some mechanical woes that removed him from contention at Indianapolis, Texas, and Mid-Ohio.  Hunter-Reay enters 2013 with a great deal of momentum as the defending champion, but his teammates are a different story.

Marco Andretti 2013 Shot

It seems that whenever Marco Andretti has a season where he looks to have turned a corner the following campaign turns out much like 2012 did.  Although his first IZOD IndyCar Series win came on a road course, since that time Andretti has suffered from poor qualifying results on these circuits.  Road and Street Courses are notoriously difficult to pass on so starting at the back of the field makes constistent, strong, and points paying finishes almost impossible.  Coupled with Andretti’s competitive pace but tough luck on the ovals, the poor results mounted to a frustrating campaign and a number change for 2013.

James Hinchcliffe 2013 shot

The 2012 campaign for James Hinchcliffe could be described as a tale of two halves.  From St. Petersburg through Iowa, Hinchcliffe had every driver, team member, and analyst in INDYCAR saying that the No. 27 GoDaddy car would find its way to victory lane, but after a difficult weekend in his hometown of Toronto, Hinchcliffe’s season seemed to go dead weight.  The top six qualifying positions and competitive race pace seemed to inexplicably go away.  2013 will be Hinchcliffe’s third full season in the IZOD IndyCar Series and he will be asked to be fast at all times and break through to Victory Lane.  Ryan Hunter-Reay has solidified himself as the lead driver on this team, but Hinchcliffe will look to move to position 1A on the roster.

EJ Viso 2013

HVM Racing suffered the worst season in history in 2012 resulting in the loss of its driver and sponsorship.  Owner Keith Wiggins turned to former driver EJ Viso to see if a program was possible for 2013.  The result is a car fielded by Andretti Autosport in conjunction with Wiggins HVM outfit and driven by Viso with sponsorship from CITGO and Team Venezuela.  Viso has shown flashes of being competitive but has lacked consistency in every seat he has entered.  Perhaps, Michael Andretti’s top-tier team will be able to help Viso find the competitive balance.

Indy Lights veteran will join Andretti Autosport at Indianapolis so stay tuned for news on that entry coming in the next 90 days.

The 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series Season At-A-Glance

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The 2011 season closed with tragedy and questions instead of excitement and anticipation.  The death of Dan Wheldon cast a dark cloud over INDYCAR as they moved toward a new car and engine formula and safety going forward was going to be of paramount importance.  The show, as always, must go on and the drivers, once again, prepared for their season-long campaigns for the Astor Cup signifying him or her the champion.

The 2012 season was always going to be of great importance to the future of open wheel racing in North America due to the debut of the new car and engine formula instituted to create closer competition, faster laps, and more excitement.  We will delve into the particulars of the DW12 IndyCar’s performance in a different article very soon, but it is time to look at the IZOD IndyCar Series 2012 season in generalities.

SEGMENT 1: ST. PETERSBURG – SAO PAULO

The 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series season began in St. Petersburg in an emotional weekend battle on the grounds that Dan Wheldon called his home in the United States.  This was the important debut of the DW12 in competition as well as Chevrolet and Lotus engine package.  With exception to a few electrical gremlins the race came off as an incredible show capped by Helio Castroneves returning to victory lane, but not until after celebrating with a fence climb on Dan Wheldon Way to cap the weekend’s festivities.

A street course is one thing with its own quirks and drama, but the first real test for the IZOD IndyCar Series came at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama.  Originally built for motorcycle racing, Barber is notorious for follow-the-leader parades with periodic ill-advised attempts at advancement often resulting in torn up equipment and hot tempers, but 2012 was a completely different story.  The DW12′s competitive ability coupled with new blocking rules resulted in the best race at the track in IndyCar history with Will Power coming from 9th starting position to win the race.

In the weeks following the race at Barber, Chevrolet found an issue with their engine that required all Chevrolet powered teams to change engines and suffer 10-position grid penalties making Pole Winner Ryan Briscoe start 11th in the race.  Teammate Will Power started 12th and raced his way through the field to record his second straight win of 2012.  Power would revisit Victory Lane in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

SEGMENT 2: THE OVALS (INDANAPOLIS 500 – IOWA CORN INDY)

When the IZOD IndyCar Series returned from Brazil, it was off to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Series’ Crown Jewel, the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race.  IndyCar fans had been treated to some of the best road and street course racing ever seen in the IZOD IndyCar Series, but concerns mounted in testing about the car’s performance on ovals.  We’ll get to the particulars of the car’s oval gremlins in a later post, but, in short, the technical department of INDYCAR developed a new wing package for the Speedway and Auto Club Speedway to correct imbalance in the car.  They hit this package right on the spot resulting in, possibly, the best Indianapolis 500 in history.

After a street race in Detroit, IndyCar teams loaded into the most feared race of the season at Texas Motor Speedway.  When the 2012 IndyCar calendar was released, nearly everyone was pointing at this race as the event with the most apprehension from drivers.  In the wake of the death of Dan Wheldon, IndyCar drivers expressed their distaste for the ludicrous pack racing on high banked oval tracks that was a prime contributing factor to the crash that claimed Wheldon.  Testing at the track revealed that the DW12 was capable of producing this type of racing that the drivers would no longer tolerate or participate.  IndyCar’s technical department developed a package with minimal downforce in order to put the driver back into the equation and it worked.

Short tracks at the resurrected Milwaukee Mile and Iowa Speedway rounded out the early summer oval schedule highlighted by the Iowa Corn Indy 250 all the exciting IndyCar racing that we have all come to know and love.

The streets of Toronto marked return to road and street courses and would be followed by Edmonton, Mid-Ohio, Sonoma, and Baltimore.  Toronto began this stretch with Hunter-Reay capturing his third consecutive win of the season soldifying his place as a top contender for the championship.  Edmonton saw Helio Castroneves capture is elusive victory at the track while Dixon continued his dominance at Mid-Ohio.

The scope of the championship began to change in Sonoma which became a game changer on the first lap when third in points Helio Castroneves’ attempted pass on Scott Dixon on the first lap resulted in Dixon’s car turned around against traffic and a drive-through penalty for Team Penske’s Brazilian driver.  The race commenced as normal with Will Power maintaining a healthy lead over teammate Ryan Briscoe until a late-race pit stop by Power followed by an untimely caution flag allowing Briscoe to take the lead.  On the ensuing restart Ryan Hunter-Reay was spun by Alex Tagilani seemingly dashing the American’s title hopes.  Roger Penske’s standard of ‘no team orders’ allowed Briscoe to capture the victory instead of surrendering the podium’s top step to championship contender Will Power.

The streets of Baltimore became the real game changer as the season raced toward its conclusion.  IndyCar elected to remove a chicane on the main straightaway that hindered the entertainment factor of restarts during the 2011 race.  It became very apparent that the chicane needed re-installation when the cars were dangerously leaving the track surface.  Race day was the biggest wild card as mother nature presented herself as the wild card.  In a huge gamble, Ryan Hunter-Reay, needing a win, remained out on the track on slick tires as ran began to fall on the course while Will Power, who dominated the race’s early stages, and other contenders ducked to pit road for rain tires.  The track dried quickly and a coupled with a miscommunication from the Verizon Team Penske crew, Ryan Hunter-Reay found himself with a huge trackposition advantage over his championship rivals.  The final restart was controversial as Hunter-Reay, running second to Power’s teammate Ryan Briscoe, jumped the Team Penske driver on the restart and set sail for the checkered flag capturing the race win setting up a two driver showdown in the season finale.

It all came down, as always, to the season finale for the championship.  The 2012 IZOD IndyCar World Championships was contested at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California and was the first 500 mile race outside of Indianapolis in over a decade.  This race was going to be a marathon that the two championship contenders, Hunter-Reay and Power, would have to navigate.  Power entered the race with a 17 point lead on Hunter-Reay and by starting eliminated Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves from title contention.  INDYCAR selected a downforce level comparable to the one used in Texas making the cars very difficult to dial in comfortably.  The scope of the championship changed drastically on lap 55.

Will Power with a 17-point championship lead only needed to keep Ryan Hunter-Reay in his sights all night to win the championship, but, inexplicably, attempted to get past the DHL/SunDrop car, lost control and hit the wall in between turns 1 and 2 mangling the Verizon sponsored machine and, seemingly, dashing Power’s hopes for the title for the third straight season.  Team Penske would thrash together to repair the car and Power returned to the track allowing him to make up one position in the final running order.  The battle was far from over as Hunter-Reay still had to finish sixth or better to win the title.  Eventually Hunter-Reay would prevail to win the championship while Ed Carpenter won one of the most exciting and drama filled races in the sport’s history.

OVERALL GRADE: As a Series, IndyCar gets a solid B grade.  In terms of the racing product, there was no other series worldwide that produced better racing week in and week out.  The championship was, again, extremely close without any “Chase” or “Countdown” system which speaks volumes for the talent depth of the IndyCar Paddock.  The new race officiating system, and Beaux Barfield in particular, created some intense competition and each race was officiated consistently and fairly.  There was productive and respectful dialogue between drivers and the technical department that allowed for an acceptable downforce package for high speed ovals.  Track product aside, IndyCar faltered in a few areas.  The degradation of the track in Detroit was difficult to foresee but, with the race being on ABC, it goes down as a black eye for the sport.  The entry of Chevrolet had great benefit to the competition level, but the Lotus engine never got up to speed and was parked swiftly at all oval races due to lack of acceptable pace.  Randy Bernard posting on Twitter that people wanted him fired was also ill advised publicity for a sport that just ran one of its best Indianapolis 500 races in history.

LOOKING AHEAD: Looking to 2013, IndyCar is in a great position to move foreward.  The first season with the DW12 was a resounding success and 2013 should have high expectations as the teams get more and more into developing the car and further unlocking its performance abilities.  It can be expected that the 2013 season will be second to none in terms of excitement and competition, however, the biggest hurdle to jump is getting viewers on television to see the amazing motorsport product that IndyCar has to offer.  Formula 1 will join IndyCar on NBC Sports Network starting in 2013 which could give a boost to the television ratings.  2013 will also have the storyline of Helio Castroneves and Dario Franchitti both going for their fourth Indianapolis 500 victory putting them right next to the names AJ Foyt, Al Unser, and Rick Mears.  Everybody tune in starting in late March 2013 to see how the next chapter in IndyCar history is written!

CHAMPIONSHIP Preview: Auto Club Speedway

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NASCAR opens their ten race Chase at Chicagoland, but this is Open-Wheel’s weekend!  Fourteen races in the books for the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series and it all comes down to this weekend at Auto Club Speedway for the MAVTV 500 on Saturday night!  This will be the ultimate test for the two teams vying for the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series championship as the IndyCar season concludes on the 2-Mile oval track located an hours drive outside Los Angeles.  The last time IndyCar graced the facility with its presence was 2005 in the season finale won by Dario Franchitti and crowning the late Dan Wheldon the series champion, although Wheldon sealed the championship the week before.  The 2012 IndyCar World Championships mark seventh consecutive season that the championship will be decided in the final round with no Chase, Countdown, or Overtime required.

WILL POWER VS. RYAN HUNTER-REAY

There were 26 driver/car combinations entered for the first race at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Peterburg, but it all comes down to two drivers at Auto Club Speedway.  Will Power enters the weekend with a 17-point lead over Ryan Hunter-Reay, the only other driver who could walk away from the MAVTV 500.  While Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon remain, currently, eligible for the championship they will be mathematically eliminated once Will Power completes his qualifying run as Power will be guaranteed a starting position and enough points to eliminate those two drivers once the green flag falls.  No matter which driver walks away with the championship, it will be a great story to cap an incredible IndyCar season.

Will Power began his open-wheel career in Champ Car capturing four wins with Team Australia, but was left without a car to drive when sponsorship contracts were not renewed.  Then, in 2009, The Captain, Roger Penske, came calling to hire him as a replacement for Helio Castroneves until he was able to return.  Power has been a top contender for the IndyCar championship since joining Team Penske full-time in 2010.  In that time, Power has amassed fourteen victories and finished runner-up in the final points standing the past two seasons.  Power has had the field covered for much of the last three years, however, he has fallen just short of the series title.  Truth be told, Power has wiped the pavement with the rest of the field on road and street courses, but his downfall has been performance on oval tracks where he has just one victory.  Place on top of the pile that Power has never competed at the Fontana track and his first time on the track was a test the week prior.  Through his own mistakes or bad luck, Power is notorious for choking in season finale races but this could be the year that Power’s season long work is finally rewarded with a series championship but he must be bolstered for a fight to the end.

Ryan Hunter-Reay enters the finale trailing Will Power by 17 points.  Hunter-Reay’s history in racing has been turbulent at best.  Hunter-Reay joined Champ Car in 2003 and became a journeyman until 2005 when he was released from the Rockesports team with two rounds to go.  He, then, joined A1GP for 2006 into 2007 until being hired to replace Jeff Simmons in the Rahal Letterman Racing IndyCar which he drove in 2008 to the Chase Rookie of the Year at the Indianapolis 500 but sponsorship dried up and Hunter-Reay was left without a ride for 2009.  Hunter-Reay joined Vision Racing as teammate for Ed Carpenter and had to scratch and claw his way into the Indianapolis 500 after which he moved to AJ Foyt Racing replacing the injured Vitor Meira.  Hunter-Reay got his break in 2010 signing to drive for Andretti Autosport with funding from IZOD.  With IZOD only a partial season deal, Andretti stuck his neck out for American driver scrapping enough money together to run the full season.  DHL/SunDrop came onboard for the full campaign in 2011 where Hunter-Reay failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, coming under scrutiny for “stealing” Bruno Junqueira’s qualified car.  If Hunter-Reay wins the championship, all of his perseverance will be rewarded, maybe not on the timetable Ryan envisioned, but a reward nonetheless.  Hunter-Reay would also be the first American driver to win the IndyCar crown since Sam Hornish Jr. in 2006.

TEAM PENSKE VS. ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT

If the finale were on a road course, 17 points would be deemed difficult if not insurmountable, but this is an oval track with higher speeds, high banks, and points can come and go quickly.  Hunter-Reay currently leads the Oval Championship, bolstered by short-track wins at Milwaukee and Iowa, but Auto Club Speedway is a different animal.  The IZOD IndyCar technical department along with the drivers developed an aerodynamic baseline using the wing package, shown below, utilized at Indianapolis combined with the low underwing downforce used at Texas Motor Speedway to inhibit pack racing and putting the car in the driver’s hands.

The Firestone tire compound is expected to be similar to Texas so cars will be coming and going in much the same fashion.  Teammates could be the lynchpin to this Championship.  Power has allies in Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe while Hunter-Reay can rely on Hinchcliffe, Andretti, and Saavedra.  On paper, the teammate advantage goes heavily in favor of Team Penske as Castroneves is the only driver to compete at Auto Club Speedway of those listed and Briscoe is close behind in oval experience and success.

500 MILE SPECTACLE UNDER THE SATURDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

What separates this race from other championship finales is that it is a marathon.  The race is 250 laps and 500 miles in length, by far the longest final race in series history.  The race will begin in the failing light, move into twilight, and end under the lights so adjusting the car as the track temperature changes will be of paramount importance to the contenders for the championship or the race win.  The race will require seven or eight pit stops so the pressure is on the crew to execute these changes quickly to put their driver in a position toward the front.

This is going to be an EPIC finale to the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series season and anything can happen once the green flag falls.  There will be 26 cars vying for positions in this race and only seven of them give a rip about the championship which leaves opportunity for drivers outside the championship hunt to cause problems for the contenders.  Everyone knows this offseason is going to be long and they will all be looking for a positive result as they park their cars for 2012.  Tune in to NBC Sports Network at 7:30 eastern time Saturday night for all the action!

OTHER NOTES: AJ Foyt Racing driver, Mike Conway, revealed his extensive discomfort for oval racing surrendering the No. 14 ABC Supply car to Wade Cunningham this weekend.  Conway’s IndyCar future is unknown at this time.

Legendary motorsports announcer Bob Jenkins will be calling his final race for the forseeable future on Saturday.  Jenkins has brought a professional, endearing, and exciting flavor to IndyCar broadcasts since taking on the anchor role in 2010.  May his journey after Saturday be swift and fruitful and we’ll see him at Indianapolis next May.

The Fight Goes to Fontana…

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The Grand Prix of Baltimore had all the make-up of a race that could bring drama, competition, and flat-out weirdness to the IZOD IndyCar Series and its championship.  Baltimore’s place on the schedule as the penultimate race in the championship proved to be an important date for everyone involved.

The weekend began precariously for the IndyCars as a set of light rail tracks caused teams’ DW12s to become airborne for as much as seventy feet down a straightaway causing Race Director Beaux Barfield to install a chicane neccessitating drivers navigate around the problem area.

For an event that almost didn’t happen and rescued by Andretti Sports Marketing it became very important to competitors.  Team Penske and Will Power looked like they were  going to all but sew up the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series Championship.  All the signs were present with IndyCar competing on a street course, an avenue that Power has all but dominated since joining Team Penske full-time in 2010.  The weekend at Baltimore started just how Team Penske had hoped when Power took the Verizon Team Penske car to the top of the starting grid winning the Pole Position and capturing one more point toward the championship.  Everything was going to plan, until Race Day.

The race began in Power’s favor as he took the point and extended his lead in the very early stages and looked to be doing what Will Power does best.  Everyone in the Paddock knew weather was going to be a factor with rain showers in the area and it was just a matter of when.  The rain came about a third of the way to the race distance forcing drivers to pit lane to swap slick tires for rain tires.

The race turned difficult for Power when Team Penske elected to keep rain tires as the track dried costing Power valuable track position.  Power’s closest championship rival, Ryan Hunter-Reay, used a risky strategy by keeping the slick tires through the rain to grab the lead.  Hunter-Reay took advantage of a significant strategy miscue on the part of Team Penske and led much of the back-half of the race positioning themselves for a huge points day.  A late-race restart with the No. 2 PPG Automotive Finishes car, driven by Power’s Penske teammate Ryan Briscoe, leading changed the entire scope of this race, and the championship.  IndyCar utilizes double-file restarts on road and street courses where cars line up side-by-side.  The restart zone is signified by orange cones, or a “cone zone”, wedged in the catch fence.  The zone begins immediately after the chicane and when the green flag flew Hunter-Reay was lagging back behind Briscoe and jumped on the throttle passing Briscoe and taking the race lead while Power was, essentially, shoved out of the way relegating him to a sixth place result as Hunter-Reay captured the win shaving Power’s points lead to 17 going to the finale at Auto Club Speedway.

There has been immediate debate on whether Hunter-Reay’s treatment of the restart was within the rules or not.  As the rule book is written, the restart was legal, however, it was not in the spirit of the rule and competition.  They are called double-file restarts for a reason and by lagging back behind Briscoe coming to the restart allowed Hunter-Reay to accelerate a couple seconds before Briscoe and make the easy pass for the win.  Regardless, what is done is done and the fight moves to Auto Club Speedway and it all comes down to 500 miles under the lights on September 15th.  The real winners in this restart exchange are fans of IndyCar Racing.  Yet again, the IZOD IndyCar Series takes its championship to the final race without any kind of “Chase” or “Countdown” system.  When Auto Club Speedway opens for practice, two drivers will be fighting for the series title.  It will be an epic race so make sure to tune in for this one!

CONGRATULATIONS RYAN HUNTER-REAY AND ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT: WINNERS OF THE BALTIMORE GRAND PRIX

RACE RECAP: IOWA CORN INDY 250

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The IZOD IndyCar Series returned to the Iowa Speedway June 22nd for some old fashioned Saturday night short track racing.  Racing at Iowa is uniquely challenging for the IndyCar Paddock as the track surface is only 7/8 of a mile in length, but progressive banking gives the track the characteristics of a superspeedway and lightning fast lap times under 18 seconds.  IZOD IndyCar drivers requested a low downforce setup similar to that run at Texas Motor Speedway earlier in the month.  The result was a race that the drivers had to drive instead of mashing the gas pedal and hoping for the best.  The hope was the race would be much like Texas with competitive side-by-side racing but with the driver a big part of the winning equation.  Iowa Speedway delivered!

Over recent years, the IZOD IndyCar Series has not shied away from trying new formats to spice up their schedule and encourage new fans to pay attention.  In Iowa, they tried a new twist to the race weekend which was qualifying determined by three heat races as opposed to single car qualifying averaging the speed of two green flag laps.  Practice times determined the field for the three heat races with odd numbered cars from 11th on back fighting for the inside lane and even numbered cars fighting for 10th on back for the outside lane.  The top-9 practice times were the only cars able to contend for the Pole Position ultimately won by Dario Franchitti.  The format was interesting and worth exploring, but the contention for most drivers was that every heat race should have meaning for the winner.  A transfer spot to the final heat race for the Pole would remedy that situation.

The race’s already late start time was delayed by over an hour due to heavy rains earlier in the day.  Props to NBC Sports Network’s broadcast team as they navigated the rain delay by offering compelling interviews with just about every driver in the Paddock.  The Iowa Speedway crew completed the track drying procedure and drivers were called to their cars.  Polesitter Dario Franchitti saw his night come to an end before it started as his Honda engine gave out on the warm-up laps ending his day.  The race restarted and Helio Castroneves of Team Penske benefitted from Franchitti’s engine troubles to take the early lead being chased by James Hinchcliffe and Ryan Hunter-Reay while all three drivers navigated early lap traffic.  The early laps provided exactly what the drivers were hoping for…competitive side-by-side racing but the cars were a handful to drive.

Will Power suffered another night to forget in Iowa when, early in the race, Power navigated his Verizon Team Penske car to the low side of the racetrack in turn 2.  The problem was that the No. 5 CITGO KV Racing Technology car piloted by EJ Viso was closing on Power and was inside the Team Penske driver at the time.  The two cars made contact sending both cars into the SAFER barrier ending the race for both drivers.  Power later admitted to his mistake and patched up any ill feelings with Viso.

As happens frequently in auto racing, strategy became paramount storyline in the race and Roger Penske looked to have given Ryan Briscoe an opportunity to win the race on a great fuel strategy.  At the end of a previous caution, Penske called Briscoe to bring the No. 2 Transitions Adaptive Lenses Dallara Chevrolet to the pits to top off the fuel in the car to go a little bit longer on the next stint than every other driver on the track.  As the next round of green flag stops cycled through, Briscoe found himself on a lap all on his own and was looking to be in a great position if a caution came out.  The caution came out, but, unfortunately, Briscoe was the driver in the wall bringing out the yellow.  Briscoe maintained the low lane as he was going to pit the next lap when he was dive bombed by Josef Newgarden who was just off pit lane with fresh tires.  The incident resulted in an end to the race for Briscoe and Newgarden.

The cars from Andretti Autosport, as in the 2011 race, appeared to be the strongest horses in the race with only Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon able to offer consistent challenges to Michael Andretti’s stable.  However, the race turned sour for another championship contender as James Hinchcliffe had his GoDaddy.com Chevrolet snap loose and get into the fence leaving Marco Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay left to duke it out for the win.  Katherine Legge spun in turn 2 with two laps to go ending the race under caution giving Ryan Hunter-Reay his second win in a row.  With Power and Hinchcliffe having issues in the race and the late fade by Scott Dixon, the points were shaken up greatly in after Iowa.  Power maintaned the points lead by three points over Ryan Hunter-Reay with Dixon maintaining third and Helio Castroneves leapfrogging Hinchcliffe to 4th in points.

CONGRATULATIONS TO RYAN HUNTER-REAY AND ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT: WINNERS OF THE IOWA CORN INDY 250

  R.I.P. DAN WHELDON

Race Recap: Milwaukee IndyFest

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The Milwaukee Mile is a one mile oval track with, essentially, flat corners resulting in a race experience that requires driver skill and mechanical grip to be fast.

Qualifying was held on Friday with Dario Franchitti grabbing the Pole Position, but the real story of qualifying was the seven cars receiving ten spot grid penalties for unapproved engine changes.  These drivers included Texas winner Justin Wilson, Ryan Briscoe, Points Leader Will Power, and 2nd in Points Scott Dixon.

The race began with Dario Franchitti leading the lion share of the early laps.  The first caution flag was brought out by a single-car spin by Simona de Silvestro ending their day.  de Silvestro’s spin occurred right in the middle of green flag stops with Helio Castroneves in the lead.  Castroneves led much of the middle of the race, but fell back due to tire strategy.  Enter Ryan Hunter-Reay.  Hunter-Reay led the final stint of the race winning the event with Tony Kanaan coming in second place.  Dario Franchitti crashed out after contact with the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske car driven by Ryan Briscoe.  Scott Dixon finished 11th after being penalized for jumping a restart!

The Dixon Penalty became a huge point of contention in the race because Beaux Barfield enforced the penalty after viewing a replay, however, the replay was not of the restart that Dixon was supposedly penalized for.  Instead, it was a replay from earlier in the race on a restart that was waved off by race control.  Barfield’s call likely cost Dixon second in points as James Hinchcliffe took over that position with his third place run.

The Milwaukee IndyFest was, effectively, the last chance for the oldest track in the United States of America to remain in business.  Originally left off of the 2012 schedule, Milwaukee was thrown a lifeline by Andretti Autosport owner Michael Andretti.  In terms of INDYCAR sanction, Milwaukee has been one of the most exciting and beloved stops on the schedule, however, track promoters were left with old bad debts and hurt feelings putting the track’s future in question.  The 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series event produced the exciting racing that was expect but a sub-15,000 person crowd put the event’s future in question.  Enter Michael Andretti.

Michael Andretti has used all of his pull, sponsors, and cars to promote this event.  Since the season began, all of Andretti Autosport’s cars carried logos and web addresses for the Milwaukee IndyFest keeping the event at the forefront of the minds of the fans and media.  The 2012 event saw a jump in fan attendance from the 15,000 from 2011 to over 20,000 marking a 25 percent increase.  The event seems to have bailed itself out as before the Drivers Start Your Engines command, given by Michael Andretti, it was revealed by the promoter that the race would return on the 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series schedule which is a big win for all!  Michael Andretti will, once again, don his promoter pants when he helps promote the second Baltimore Grand Prix later this year!

UP NEXT:

The IZOD IndyCar Series takes to the corn fields of Iowa on June 23rd for the Iowa Corn Indy 250 at Iowa Speedway.  Qualifying for the race will be determined by heat races for the first time in IZOD IndyCar competition so make sure to tune in for that!

CONGRATULATIONS TO RYAN HUNTER-REAY AND ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT: WINNERS OF THE MILWAUKEE INDYFEST!

R.I.P. DAN WHELDON

Sao Paulo Recap: What Turbo Upgrade?

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If Honda was frustrated and scratching their heads coming out of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, they must be fuming after Brazil.  Prior to the race weekend, Honda won the ability to upgrade their turbocharger to the behest of Chevrolet.  The turbo upgrade was installed to remove a noticeable turbo lag on exit of slow corners and make the Honda engine more competitive on the road and street courses.  The race weekend began with the same story, however, as Team Penske’s Will Power snagged the Pole Position, his second in the first four races and fourth on the season for Team Penske, by .04 seconds over Ganassi driver Dario Franchitti.

The fast six, in general, was more balanced with Power being joined by James Hinchcliffe and Ryan Hunter-Reay for Chevrolet while Franchitti was joined by teammate Scott Dixon and Justin Wilson of Dale Coyne Racing representing Honda.  The pace overall of the Honda teams was much closer to that of Chevrolet which is a good sign.  A competitive Honda engine is important for the future of the IZOD IndyCar Series because manufacturer competition is imperative as the series continues to grow into the mainstream of sports in North America.  If Chevrolet was to come out and completely wipe the field with Honda, all of those Honda teams would run for Chevrolet at year’s end making IndyCar a spec series once again

The most amazing thing about this race, other than the fact that the rain failed to garner the race course with its presence, was that all 26 cars made it through the first turn without incident on the start.  The race ran caution free until Ryan Briscoe smacked the wall on his outlap following his first pit stop.  The ensuing restart saw Dario Franchitti punted by Mike Conway bringing out the yellow flag almost as soon as the green flew for the restart.  As is typical on street courses, strategy played a huge factor in determining the race winner.  The only driver able to touch Will Power in this race was Scott Dixon, however, Dixon was forced to make three pit stops to Power’s two thus sealing his fate.  A couple late incidents involving Ed Carpenter and Josef Newgarden brought out late restarts, one of which saw a 7-8 car pileup ruining many driver’s chances at good results.  Ryan Hunter-Reay gave it all he had, but was to no avail and Will Power captured his third straight win of 2012 and remains unbeaten on the Sao Paulo circuit.

Power’s Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves drove from a miserable 20th place starting position to finish 4th and Dario Franchitti rebounded from the incident with Conway to finish 5th salvaging a good points day.  Takuma Sato also finished 3rd, his best result to date in the IZOD IndyCar Series.  Overall, the Honda engines were more competitive, but Chevrolet still has the advantage as it seems through four races.  Also, Oriol Servia finished 11th in Dreyer & Reinbold’s final race with the Lotus powerplant.

The biggest question being asked through the entire Paddock:

CAN ANYBODY SLOW DOWN WILL POWER?  Some oval races on the horizon to, perhaps, bring the field right back to Power’s rear wing.  Keep tuning in as this story develops over the next 8 weeks.

CONGRATULATIONS TO WILL POWER AND TEAM PENSKE:  WINNERS OF THE SAO PAULO INDY 300!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UP NEXT:

After an open test at Texas Motor Speedway the IndyCars will load into the world’s greatest race course, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, for the crown jewel on the schedule the Indianapolis 500.  This is destined to be a emotion-filled month as the series returns to the site of the late Dan Wheldon’s last win so the emotions will run high.  It is also the first oval on the schedule begging the question who, Chevrolet or Honda, will have the advantage when the engine spends all its time at high RPM.  Also, some entries are still to be filled and some still need engines so the drama will run high all month.  Make sure to tune in May 19-20 for Qualifying and the Race goes GREEN on May 27!

R.I.P. DAN WHELDON

IZOD INDYCAR SEASON PREVIEW: ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT

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2011 Cars:

# 7 Danica Patrick

# 26 Marco Andretti

# 27 Mike Conway

# 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay

# 43 John Andretti (Indianapolis Only)

2011 Engine: Honda

2011 Sponsors: GoDaddy.com, Venom Energy, Follow Andretti, DHL/SunDrop, Window World

2011 Review:

Andretti Autosport, once the premier team in the IZOD IndyCar Series, experienced a season of mixed results in 2011.  The team left 2011 with three wins with three of their four drivers.  Marco Andretti took the long awaited checkered flag at Iowa Speedway with Ryan Hunter-Reay and Mike Conway pulling out wins at New Hampshire and Long Beach, respectively.  Team starlet Danica Patrick, however, failed to find victory lane in 2011 and suffered a season of inconsistency, especially on road and street courses.  The biggest frustration for the team had to be the Indianapolis 500.  All of the team’s cars, except John Andretti, found great difficulty finding speed around the 2.5 mile circuit.  John Andretti was the only member of the five car stable to make the Indianapolis 500 field on the first day of qualifying leaving the four series regulars to make qualifying attempts on Bump Day.  The result was Marco Andretti and Danica Patrick making the field with Hunter-Reay and Conway not finding enough speed to make the cut, although, Hunter-Reay through some wheeling and dealing with A.J. Foyt Racing wound up on the starting grid on race day.

Andretti Autosport can look at 2011 as a season of positives and negatives, but the team showed flashes of the pace that made them the dominant team in 2004 and 2005 and won them two Indianapolis 500 trophies and three championships.  As they move forward to 2012, 2011 should be a season that they can build on and become stronger

2012 Cars:

#25 Sebastien Saavedra(Indianapolis Only..for now)*

*Paint Scheme Unknown at this Time

# 26 Marco Andretti

# 27 James Hinchcliffe

# 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay

2012 Engine: Chevrolet Twin Turbo V6

2012 Sponsors: Automatic Fire Sprinklers, RC Cola, GoDaddy.com, DHL/SunDrop

 

2012 Preview:

Andretti Autosport should be a top contender for race wins in 2012.  Powered by Chevrolet’s twin turbocharged engine, the team should have competitive pace everywhere while downgrading from four cars to three should allow the team to provide more focus toward making each car competitive.  Danica Patrick has left to pursue a career in NASCAR, however, GoDaddy.com elected to remain a major sponsorship stake in the team opening the door for James Hinchcliffe to make his debut with the team utilizing that GoDaddy sponsorship.  Bittersweet because the car was destined for Dan Wheldon, but Hinchcliffe should fill the car’s cockpit nicely.  Marco Andretti carries a new sponsor for 2012 in Royal Crown Cola while Hunter-Reay retains the DHL and SunDrop Citrus Soda sponsorship.  Sebastien Saavedra was announced to join the team at the Indianapolis 500 in May in partnership with AFS Racing and sponsor Automatic Fire Sprinklers.  Look for a possible fifth car, in partnership with Richard Petty Motorsports, at Indianapolis with John Andretti driving and sponsorship from Window World.

2012 Prediction:

Andretti Autosport should put all three of its drivers in the top 10 in points for 2012 with a couple of wins scattered throughout.  Look for all three full-time drivers to be a threat on any given weekend with an Indianapolis 500 victory very possible and an outside chance at winning the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series Championship.