Ryan Hunter-Reay Talks Pocono: 'Smile And Move On'

Ryan Hunter-Reay drove a phenomenal race at Pocono, then spoke about his engine failure and how he’s not as elated as we are over what he accomplished.

Ryan Hunter-Reay demonstrated why he’s one of the Verizon IndyCar Series’ best drivers on Monday. He navigated his No. 28 Andretti Autosport DHL Honda through the field twice during the 2016 ABC Supply 500, overcoming temporary engine failure to finish third.

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After the race Hunter-Reay shed some light on the engine situation and what it was was like for him to power through so much adversity, but also was disappointed that he hadn’t been able to capture a second consecutive win at Pocono.

“I can’t help but feel like that 28 DHL Honda should have been in Victory Lane today. It was there when I needed it, there when I needed to bide my time,” he explained at the post-race press conference. “There’s very few times in your career when you get a car that you’re completely in line with and it’s doing everything that you need it to. That’s what I had today. It was like a 2014 Indy 500 car.”

Hunter-Reay, of course, won the Indianapolis 500 in 2014 and could have won it again in 2016 if not for a pit lane collision with teammate Townsend Bell. So he pointed toward Monday as yet another example of what’s been a terribly bad luck season for the No. 28 squad.

“I just don’t know what we need to do,” he opined. “The engine shuts off while we’re leading. I could sit here and sound like a whiner about it, but it’s frustrating. Can’t be doing anything right.”

What exactly went wrong with the engine?

“What I heard so far is that something became disconnected, because they lost signal from it on the ECU,” he told us. “I don’t know if it popped back in or what, if it was a bad connector. Something pretty freak happened.

“It had to do, I think, with the teeth on the connection,” he said, adding, “[You] smile and move on.”

Naturally, he was not smiling when he lost all power and had to take an unexpected trip down pit lane. Hunter-Reay walked us through what the experience was like trying from the cockpit.

“Finally when I was in pit lane, almost stopped, I thought all right, let me clutch it one more time and try it. Cycled it again real quick almost to a stop, it fired,” he recalled, “Are you kidding me?

“I rejoined the race a lap down, got the wave-around on the yellow, started from the back, finished third,” he continued. “[It’s] real frustrating. Trying to smile about it, trying to be upbeat about it. To have a day like we did today, [possibly] finally get that win in there, very disheartening.”

But despite his bad break, he praised the overall experience of Pocono. “Great race today,” he added. “Had a lot of fun out there. Very typical, very good IndyCar racing.”

Part of the fun was watching Hunter-Reay eat up the field on the start. Beginning from dead last after a practice crash kept him out of qualifying, he pushed the No. 28 out and around multiple cars – a move he’s pulled a few times this season, and it usually gets great results.

“I knew I had to get going. Once everybody settles into a rhythm, it’s kind of hard to make those passes,” he explained of his initial mindset. “I thought hey, let’s go for it again. Made up like eight spots on the start. It was a good start. Good way to settle into the rhythm.

“You always take a big risk when you do that because you’re not sure where the grip level is going to be. It’s like jumping into the unknown. We’ve seen a lot of guys lose the rear of the car into Turn 1,” he continued.

“Took a leap of faith. It paid off. It’s that fine hero and zero line, and you want to try to stay on the hero side. That’s where I was trying to be.”

When he was faced with the same situation again after the engine failure he wasn’t as sure of his chances.

“I didn’t think it was going to be possible to come through at the end,” Hunter-Reay admitted, “because I thought everybody made their cars pretty good. It was more difficult than the beginning of the race when we came through the field. That was difficult. But it was a lot of fun, a whole lot of fun. Even though we finished third, it was good fun at the end.

“I really enjoy racetracks like [Pocono] where you’re always thinking,” he added “It’s a thinking driver’s track. You have to have the big picture in mind. Turn 3 and Turn 1 are so different; you always have to be on your toes.”

After the checkered flag Hunter-Reay’s efforts didn’t go unrecognized. Several of his fellow drivers came over to compliment his work, including Ed Carpenter, Josef Newgarden and teammate Marco Andretti. Did that help take the sting off the day off a little bit?

“It’s nice. It’s nice to have a pat on the back,” he said, but added, “Then you turn around and you see all the confetti going off. Somebody else is in Victory Lane. It’s like, yeah, missed opportunity.

“You know, it was a good day, good drive,” RHR reflected. “We had the car to compete for a win. I’m not going to sit here and say we would have won, because that’s not fair to anybody. We needed to be there in the fight to really prove that.

“But the car shut off while we were leading. We drove through the field twice. It was a good day on that side of it, but a huge opportunity missed. I really wanted to win. After this whole season, there hasn’t been one year where I had a full-time drive that I haven’t won a race. Today was a good opportunity, for sure.”

And speaking of good, Hunter-Reay agreed with Mikhail Aleshin’s comments that the 2016 IndyCar championship battle is going to be a fierce one as the season enters its final month.

“It would be nice to be an IndyCar fan right now because it’s going to be a good one,” he commented. “When I saw the fluorescent bodywork [of the No. 22 car] into the wall today, I knew that things were getting interesting.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how it plays out. Simon [Pagenaud] is a big picture thinker. He’s a very calculated driver. And Will [Power] has the got the bit between his teeth and hair on fire. It’s going to be interesting.”

Ryan Hunter-Reay Talks Pocono: ‘Smile And Move On’

By Brittany Frederick | Aug 25, 2016

Ryan Hunter-Reay drove a phenomenal race at Pocono, then spoke about his engine failure and how he’s not as elated as we are over what he accomplished.