Andretti Autosport, IZOD IndyCar Series
Race Report: Indy Grand Prix of Alabama
Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 1 DHL Chevrolet
Coming off a disappointing end result in St. Petersburg, Hunter-Reay more than redeemed himself coming to the checkered flag in first, the reigning champion's tenth career win and the first non-Penske win at Barber Motorsports Park since IndyCar be gan racing at the 2.38-mile permanent road course.
"Helio and I always race clean. I had a little bit of contact with him before - I just couldn't slow the car down and he was on the outside of me. Luckily we both just kept going from that; he took the lead at that point. His tire strategy worked in our favor, we had new reds on when he had blacks on, and he was just a sitting duck at that point. Will, on the other hand, did an unbelievable job keeping me behind him on reds. It was our worst set of reds though. I just kept patient and made it happen when I needed to. It was very challenging out there today. I'd like to thank all the other drivers, though, for keeping it on track and not going yellow because man, I didn't want it to go yellow at the end. Winning at Barber is excellent. It shows what we're about, it shows that last year wasn't a fluke. We really worked for it today. Unreal. I'm exhausted."
Marco Andretti, No. 25 RC Cola Chevrolet
Andretti started today's race in seventh and pushed his way to third on the opening lap. Today's finish moves the American driver into the fourth position in the championship point standings.
"I thought the RC Cola car was quicker on track than where we ended up. Coming into Barber, you can always expect this to be a physical race. Not finding the podium is always tough to swallow, but having back to back top-ten finishes keeps us in a good position going into Long Beach."
E.J. Viso, No. 5 Team Vene zuela PDVSA CITGO Chevrolet
Starting the 2013 Grand Prix of Alabama in 16th, Viso fought to gain positions during the 90-lap race. The Venezuelan was shown in P14 after his third pit stop, and saw the checkered flag wave in P12 - gaining two spots on the final lap.
"Probably not the race that we wanted. Anyways, we stayed out of trouble and we did all we could. Unfortunately in our race there were not many red flags to give us any margins to risk and to work on strategies. It was a very clean race. Not much action on track - just trying to keep the pace with the others. That's about it. I'm very happy for Ryan - he won the race! Hopefully my turn is coming soon."
James Hinchcliffe, No. 27 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet
Becoming involved in an incident on Lap 1, Hinchcliffe's Go Daddy Chevy was moved off the track, out of the way of the competition, and waited for a yellow to make his way back to the No. 27 pit stall. The remainder of the race saw no caution periods, and the 2013 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg winner was never able to rejoin the field.
"Certainly not the race that we wanted, but it wasn't really our weekend at all. You know we had problems in practice, obviously the issue we had in qualifying, and then got hit on the first lap of the race. It's too bad because I think the strategy we had with the tires was going to be a good one, and obviously the car was strong with Ryan bringing home the win. It sucked to have to sit there - praying for a yellow, staying in the car, hoping we'd get the car back to the pits and maybe salvage a position or two. But ultimately it didn't work out for us; just one more thing that didn't fall our way this weekend. We kind of laugh it off because there's nothing else you can do at this point - put it behind us and move on to Long Beach, and try to put the Go Daddy car into a better position."
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