Hunter-Reay Wins Iowa IndyCar Race
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NEWTON, Iowa — IndyCar saw a lot of red, white and blue — with a big splash of yellow — in the heartland Saturday night.
Ryan Hunter-Reay held off Josef Newgarden and Sage Karam in the Iowa Corn 300 at Iowa Speedway for a 1-2-3 sweep by U.S. drivers — the first such performance by Americans since Sam Hornish Jr. held off Marco and Michael Andretti in the 2006 Indianapolis 500.
Graham Rahal gave the U.S. fourth place, too, with Ed Carpenter sixth and Marco Andretti seventh. The only foreign-born driver in the top group was Colombian Carlos Munoz, who placed fifth.
Driving the yellow car, Hunter-Reay desperately needed this win. The former IndyCar champion and 500 winner hadn’t reached Victory Lane since July 12, 2014, when he beat Newgarden on the same track. Hunter-Reay has won three of the past four races on the 0.875-mile short oval.
Hunter-Reay’s victory also gave Andretti Autosport — another U.S.-born entity — its sixth consecutive win at Iowa Speedway. Its other winners have been Dario Franchitti, Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti and James Hinchcliffe.
“I don’t know what it is about this team and this place, but we’re awesome here,” Hunter-Reay said. “This season has been
a challenge, for sure, but we’ve kept our heads up and kept working. This feels so good, such a relief. We can exhale now.”
Indianapolis 500 champion Juan Pablo Montoya entered the event with a 54-point lead over Scott Dixon, a total amounting to a full-race advantage with just four races left. But that changed on Lap 10 when suspension failure in Turn 2 caused Montoya to hit the outside wall. His race was done.
“As soon as I loaded up (in the corner), something gave up,” said Montoya, nursing a
bruised hand.
Other championship contenders struggled, too. Scott Dixon’s car needed mid-race repairs, costing him considerably. He finished 18th.
He’ll head to the Aug. 2 race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, a track where he has won three of the past four races and five overall, trailing Montoya by 48 points.
“I thought we were getting a break with (Montoya) going out early and then we
had a weird problem with the right rear axle,” Dixon said.
Chip Ganassi’s team had troubles throughout the night. Kanaan retired with an electrical problem after leading 70 laps. Charlie Kimball glanced off the Turn 2 wall, slid to the inside wall and was done.
That left only Karam to compete for the win. His race ended with Carpenter giving him an earful about safe driving. Carpenter said they would have crashed if the veteran had not backed out of a couple of close calls.
Turn 2 was the trouble spot throughout. Justin Wilson grazed the wall trying to slow up for traffic ahead of him. Kimball also spun there, as did rookie Stefano Coletti and Takuma Sato. None of them were injured.
The memorable moment of the night came when Carpenter marched toward Karam to
express his anger with Karam twice squeezing him against the front straightaway wall.
“I said that he has no respect for anyone out there,” Carpenter said. “If it wasn’t for guys with experience driving with their heads on, he would be hurting himself and other people. He has no clue.”
Karam said, “He says I squeezed him a few times, but it is the same way he drove me. It’s hard racing. I’m going for wins and that is how we are driving. It’s close racing, it’s IndyCar racing. This ain’t go-karts or anything anymore.
“We are going to race each other hard, and we are professionals. We know each other’s limits. I mean, tough luck for him.”
