Photo Credit: Shawn Gritzmacher
For the first round of qualifying for the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Ryan Hunter-Reay, driver of the No. 28 DHL Honda, ended up in the second position securing him a spot in the Fast Nine for the next and final round of the qualifying.
Earlier in the day after his first attempt at qualifying he found himself out of the Fast Nine and would have to make another attempt to bump his way in.
“We were out of the window in the first run,” he said. “Came back to the garage and talked with the teammates. “It’s been great working with Townsend (Bell) as well. Thanks to him for working me on my second run.”
The Andretti Autosport driver would see definite improvement on his final attempt when he got a speed of 230.805 mph which gave him his spot in the Fast Nine. Now he will have to qualify to try to get the pole starting position for the race.
“Put a different set up on it,” he said. “Got the aero right, got the balance right and finally was feeling what the car needed. So it was a good second run and then I had to do it again there at the end.
“That was hectic. You know, like James (Hinchcliffe) was saying, I have some bad memories of this place, being right as the gun goes off. I’ve done that twice in my career. That was very similar. I have to keep in mind myself it’s only for the Top Nine, you’re fine.
“So yeah good balance in the car. I think I could have got a little bit more out of it. Maybe we’ll save it for tomorrow and have a good shootout.”
Up to this point in the season coming into IMS for the Indy 500, Hondas has struggled, but so far they have been showing promise at IMS as they put five cars in to the Fast Nine. Three of them were Andretti Autosport teammates as Bell and Carlos Munoz joined Hunter-Reay.
“Big thanks to Honda,” he said. “I just wanted to thank them for laying it all on the line. They’re pushing hard and I feel like we have a good match-up right now. Like I said out there, You know, pretty similar weight, pretty similar build and the same reach at the moment. So that would be really good to have it that way for Race Day.”
