Hunter-Reay Checks Out At Watkins Glen

By Joe Jennings
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Updated: July 6, 2008

WATKINS GLEN, July 6 – Ryan Hunter-Reay vaulted into the lead with nine laps remaining in the Camping World Grand Prix at The Glen and raced to victory in the 10th race of the IndyCar Series season.

The 60-lap race took place on the historic 3.4-mile road course at Watkins Glen International.

This is the winner’s first IndyCar Series victory. His previous best finish was sixth in this year’s Indianapolis 500 and at Michigan a year ago. He did have two Champ Car victories in 2003 and 2004.

Interestingly, Hunter-Reay will be featured on a 60′ x 80′ Izod billboard in Times Square, New York, starting tomorrow.

“This is so special to get my first IndyCar win,” Hunter-Reay said. “Once we got the lead, we just checked out. For all the bad luck that’s gone our way, for it to finally go our way a little bit, that’s huge.

“It is a dream comes true (for me) — an American kid winning with Ethanol on the side of the car, on an American team, driving for Bobby Rahal, an American legend, on the 4th of July in upstate New York, and on one of the best race tracks in America makes it a pretty American deal.”

Regarding his late-race pass of surprising leader Darren Manning, Hunter-Reay stated, “I got a run on Darren, stuffed it down in there and said I’ll deal with it when it happens. Then I got to the top of the hill, Darren popped to the outside so I stuck to the inside and held on to it from there.”

The victor drove the Rahal Letterman Racing Team Ethanol entry. This is the team’s fourth IndyCar victory and the 20th since the team was founded in 1992. On the IndyCar side, Buddy Rice scored three wins for them in 2004.

“Ryan did a super job,” co-owner Bobby Rahal said. “This is vindication for us. Some guys have said this team doesn’t have the will to win. Ryan needed a break and we’re very proud of him.”

Manning pushed A. J. Foyt’s ABC Supply Co. car to second place 2.4 seconds behind the victor. He led 10 laps and seemed headed for victory until Hunter-Reay passed him on a restart.

For Manning, second place was a career best after four fourth places a while back. Second was the best finish for the Foyt team since Airton Dare won for them at Kansas six years ago.

Commenting on Hunter-Reay’s pass, Manning said, “I’m still livid about the restarts. He blocked me twice, but I’ll let him have this one. I was a bit of a sitting duck as we had to save fuel. We had stayed out (when the others pitted), and I was just trying to stay in front of people.

“We are a small team. My only teammate is A. J. (Foyt) and he’s a tough task master and sets a high standard. With the resources we have, we are doing well and we validated ourselves this weekend.”

Tony Kanaan bounced back from a Sunday morning practice crash to finish a strong third. When the suspension on the Kanaan car broke, he slammed into a wall, injuring his wrist. X-rays proved negative but more tests are anticipated as Kanaan admitted he drove in pain.

“My wrist gave up on me a little bit and I am in a lot of pain right now,” Kanaan said in victory lane. It’s good to be in pain on the podium.”

Kanaan’s solid finish combined with bad luck by point leader Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves tightened up the point chase.

Dixon leads with 370 points with Castroneves second with 322 and Dan Wheldon third with 311. Kanaan holds down fourth with 304.

Running second during a caution period on the 49th laps, Dixon did a full spin while warming up his tires and Ryan Briscoe in third place ran into him. Dixon continued going but dropped in the standings while Briscoe’s car required a new nose cone.

Dixon ended up 11th with Briscoe 12th.

“I was a complete idiot,” Dixon said afterward. “I was just trying to heat up the tires, got a bit aggressive and the steering wheel snapped on me.”

Briscoe, who led the most laps with 37, was dejected about the incident. “I think we had a really good shot for a win,” he said. “That’s life and we’ll move on.”

Buddy Rice finished fourth, his best finish since a year ago in Iowa.

Marco Andretti garnered fifth place after being involved in a first-lap scrape.

Sixth through tenth were Bruno Junqueira, and rookies Mario Moraes, Graham Rahal, Hideki Mutoh and E. J. Viso.

Except for a sixth lap tow-in of Castroneves, the first 40 laps of the race were caution free. But the complexion of the race changed at that point with five slowdowns took place between laps 40 and 53.

Enrique Bernoldi had a hard hit in turn 1 and he complained of back pain. Medical officials checked him out and he was released from the care center. However, he will be re-evaluated before his next race.

Briscoe dominated 37 of the first 41 laps with Vitor Meira slipping in for four laps until he was clipped to Viso.

Manning led laps 42-51 with Hunter-Reay the standard bearer for the final nine circuits.

The IndyCar Series travels to the Nashville Speedway next weekend.