INDYCAR GRAND PRIX OF SONOMA
RACE REPORT
09.16.18
The sun has set on another season of Verizon IndyCar Series racing as Ryan Hunter-Reay goes into the night with an 18th career victory after a dominating season finale. NAPA Racing driver Alexander Rossi came up short in the championship battle, taking the vice-champion seat -- but not before putting on a stellar show as he raced his way from 25th into the top five after an opening-lap incident. Marco Andretti rounded out his season with a top-five finish with the U.S. Concrete crew while rookie Zach Veach came home 14th.
All eyes now turn to 2019 where all four current Andretti drivers will return to the stable to chase down a championship.
No. 28 DHL HONDA
•STARTED 1st // FINISHED 1st
•CHAMPIONSHIP: 4th (566 pts.)
•OF NOTE: Captured an 18th career victory and first win at Sonoma Raceway // Started from the pole and led 80 of 85 laps // Gained one spot in the point standings to come in fourth
“Today was great. I felt like the race just didn't want to end. I guess that's what happens when you spend the whole day out front. Any time I needed the pace to put it down, we leapt out to a lead, I was able to maintain that. Hats off to this team, DHL, AutoNation, Honda – everyone involved. Honda really gave me great drivability, reliability. The Firestone tires were great. Shout out to Kerry Doughty, CEO of Butterball, fighting cancer at home right now. His name was on the side of our car today – this is a special win for him and we’re honored to have him with us in spirit. Also a big shout out to Robbie Wickens – I want to dedicate that win to him and his fight. It was great to see the video message from him today and, hopefully he will back with us as soon as possible.”
No. 98 U.S. CONCRETE / CURB HONDA
•STARTED 4th // FINISHED 5th
•CHAMPIONSHIP: 8th (392 pts, tied with Rahal)
•OF NOTE: Showed contender speed all day on his way to a fifth-place result // Climbed three spots in the points standings to place comfortably inside the top 10 in the championship
“I’m very pleased to be this quick on a road course here. Not a bad finish for the last race at Sonoma, I would’ve liked it to have gone a bit better. I think if we went with reds early on I think we could have kept [Simon] Pagenaud behind us. [Alexander] Rossi was amazingly quick and we tried to make it easy on him out of the pits and give him a shot. It was pretty cool of them, they knew I gave them the position, and they gave it back there at the end, so we were able to come out with a top five. Congrats to Ryan for closing out the year with a win. We’re ready for 2019.”
No. 27 NAPA AUTO PARTS HONDA
•STARTED 6th // FINISHED 7th
•CHAMPIONSHIP: 2nd (621 pts.)
•OF NOTE: Suffered a cut front tire and front wing damage on the opening lap, dropping Rossi back to 25th // Charged through the field to show as high as fifth before settling into a seventh-place finish // Ends his third IndyCar season second in the points standings
“Hats off to the whole 27 NAPA Team. It was a great day for Andretti Autosport with Ryan [Hunter-Reay] winning so it’s very unfortunate what happened in Turn 1 on Lap 1. It’s a situation I’m sure we’ll all replay a lot of times but, at the end of the day, it’s been a good 2018 and I am very appreciative for all the support we’ve had this year. We came pretty close and we’ll work on the things we need to be better on and come back stronger next year. [Scott] Dixon’s the benchmark. He’s the five-time champion for a reason so he deserves it 100 percent and we’ll work very hard to come back and try to beat him next year.”
No. 26 GROUP 1001 HONDA
•STARTED: 10th // FINISHED 14th
•CHAMPIONSHIP: 15th (313 pts.)
•ROOKIE OF THE YEAR RANK: 2nd
•OF NOTE: Rolled off from the top 10 but suffered undertray damage and lost ground // Finished his rookie season with five top-10 finishes earning second in the Rookie of the Year standings
“It was a really tough race for us. We got hit on the start and that damaged our undertray quite a bit, so we were running around with a few hundred pounds less downforce. That made the car very difficult to drive and then trying to make up for that damage – pushed a little too hard and made a mistake. That kind of ended our race, putting us a lap down. I’m frustrated in myself. I should’ve been a little more patient in what we had.”
MEDIA CONTACTS
Ryann Rigsby
Vice President, Communications
ryann.rigsby@andrettiautosport.com
+1 610.909.7312
Britni Allen
Senior Manager, Communications, INDYCAR
britni.allen@andrettiautosport.com
+1 740.816.2748
Phil Zielinski
Manager, Communications, Formula E
phil.zielinski@andrettiautosport.com
+1 317.373.9549
Amber Stevenson
Associate, Communications
amber.stevenson@andrettiautosport.com
+1 574.361.4325
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