Race Report: Rexall Edmonton Indy
EDMONTON, July 26, 2009—When the Rexall Edmonton Indy
began, it appeared Ryan Hunter-Reay and the ABC Supply team
were going to have a good day.
The changes made to the No. 14 car Saturday night following
qualifying were to the driver’s liking as he was in the
top-10 for most of the final practice on race morning. In
the race, Hunter-Reay got a good start advancing from his
21st grid position to 15th, aided by the mistakes of several
cars ahead of him. By lap 16, he moved to 14th.
He pitted on lap 31 and when the pit stops cycled out, he’d
picked up an additional three positions to move into 11th.
Running the Firestone alternate red-rimmed tires on the
first two stints of the race, Hunter-Reay pitted for his
final set of tires and fuel on lap 64.
That final set of tires were the primary black ones which
didn’t seem to work as well as the alternates. Running 12th
and chasing down 11th, Hunter-Reay had a slight miscue on
lap 76, did a quarter spin and tagged the wall in turn 10,
knocking his rear wing askew.
“The rear stepped out – it went sideways and did a quarter
spin,” he said afterwards. “I almost had it off the wall but
nicked it just enough. I got that black set of tires and
from the start of it, it was not happy at all. I don’t know
why, they were just sliding all around on me.”
He limped back to the pits and the crew replaced the wing
but struggled to disentangle the two sets of tethers. When
he rejoined the race, he was eight laps down to the leader
in 17th position, which is where he finished.
The race went without a full course yellow until the final
two laps when Tomas Scheckter spun and hit the wall in turn
10. Pole winner Will Power won under caution after leading
90 of the 95 laps for his first IndyCar Series victory. He
was followed by Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, Ryan Briscoe
and Dario Franchitti.
Tony Kanaan sustained burns to his thumbs and face after his
car caught fire while leaving his pitbox on lap 34. The fuel
hose remained open after the stop, splashing fuel on the car
which then ignited. The Penske and Panther teams acted
quickly to extinguish the fire. Kanaan will be evaluated by
IndyCar Series medical personnel this week.
The ABC Supply transporter will head straight to Kentucky
Speedway while the crew will head there on Tuesday to switch
the cars’ configuration from road course to oval track.
The Meijer Indy 300 Presented by Red Baron and Edy’s will be
televised on Versus this Saturday evening, August 1 starting
at 8 pm EDT
Ryan Hunter-Reay Qualifies 21st at Edmonton
EDMONTON, Canada July 25, 2009—Ryan Hunter-Reay will
start 21st in the Rexall Edmonton Indy tomorrow afternoon at
the City Centre Airport track.
Driving the No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara/Honda, Hunter-Reay
began the weekend running 13th in the first practice session
but like nearly every other driver this weekend, he spun off
course. The first time he did a quarter spin in turn 11 and
hit the tire barrier, damaging the rear wing, which the team
was able to repair (for a back-up).
There were a couple more spins in the following practice
sessions but he escaped without hitting anything. All of the
drivers were complaining of a lack of grip as they tried to
find the edge—some found it a little more quickly than
others, and most drivers found it more than once.
Disappointed in qualifying, A.J. Foyt is making more changes
to the car for the race. Hunter-Reay will have the final
half-hour warm-up in the morning to see if the changes are
to his liking.
Will Power outpaced both of his full-time teammates Ryan
Briscoe and Helio Castroneves to win the pole. Rounding out
the Firestone Fast Six were Scott Dixon, Graham Rahal and
Dario Franchitti.
Notes & Quotes: Rexall Edmonton Indy
• Ryan Hunter-Reay on racing at Edmonton: “I like
racing there because of the atmosphere and I’m a big fan of
airport road courses. They’re usually really fast and
flowing which makes for good racing like Cleveland back in
the day. They end up being fun because you’re using airport
runways and taxi ways where you can actually get a lot of
corner speed. What makes it challenging is the fact that it
has road course type corners and street course type corners
in it -- all at the same track. It has a very smooth flowing
fast section and on the other side it has a very bumpy
section so it’s a small window to nail the set-up. I think
there’s a little bit of a compromise in the set-up but if
you make the car good over the bumpy stuff, it’ll be good
over the smooth section.”
• RHR on what it takes to win at Edmonton: “You have
to be very strong in the fastest corners which are the two
last two, 13 and 14, and then the back fast right hander --
turn 9 -- because those turns lead onto the only passing
zones on the track. I think those are the keys. You have to
be quick in the really fast chicane and the very fast right
hander at the back side of the track.”
• Last year at Edmonton, Hunter-Reay started 13th and
finished eighth; Darren Manning started 18th in the No. 14
and finished 10th.
• On his weekend off: “On Friday and Saturday I was
in Florida with my mom and then Saturday night I came out to
California. I did some cycling and surfing on Sunday.”
• Life in the Fast Lane: A.J. Foyt and his family
jetted into (and out of) Napa, California on Saturday, July
18th to attend the wedding of his grandson A.J. IV (Anthony)
to Casey Irsay, daughter of Indianapolis Colts owner Jim
Irsay. Larry Foyt was the Best Man and had been in
California most of last week as there were extensive
activities planned for the wedding party and guests. The
newlyweds flew to a 5-star resort in Jackson Hole, WY for
their honeymoon.
• Toronto performance: Hunter-Reay started 12th (tied
with his best start of '09 and the No. 14’s best start of
'09) and finished 7th for his best finish with the Foyt
team. It was also the ABC Supply team’s best finish this
year to date.
• Past Performances on road courses in 2009: At
Watkins Glen, Hunter-Reay started 21st but never made a lap;
he was eliminated in a multi-car crash on the first lap. At
Long Beach he started 12th and finished 11th driving for
Vision Racing while the No. 14 started 20th with Vitor Meira
and finished 14th. At St. Petersburg, Hunter-Reay started
14th and finished 2nd while Meira started 17th and finished
9th.
• Brickyard Interview: A.J. Foyt and Tony Stewart’s
joint interview, taped at the yard of bricks at Indianapolis
Motor Speedway earlier this month, will be shown as part of
the pre-race show.
• The Rexall Edmonton Indy will be shown live Sunday,
July 26 at 5:00 p.m. ET on Versus.
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