After taking the lead with 14 laps to go from Helio Castroneves, Ryan Hunter-Reay would hold off Scott Dixon in the final laps to score his first victory of the season in the Grand Prix of Alabama.
“I had a little contact there with Helio,” Hunter-Reay said. “I feel bad about it. Good thing nobody was affected by it. I drove my tail there trying to stay in front. Great for DHL, great for Chevrolet. Good to be back in victory lane.”
Hunter-Reay would get to Castroneves’ inside in turn nine, though slid up slightly making contact.
“I was still inside of Helio and he came turning down and I hadn’t slowed the car yet,” he said. “I hit him broadside. Didn’t really matter. His strategy is what bit him in the end.”
It marks the 10th career IndyCar victory for the defending series champion. It also put an end to Penske Racing’s reign at Barber Motorsports Park as they had won the previous three races held there.
For Hunter-Reay, it marks a solid comeback following an 18th place finish two weeks ago at St. Petersburg due to mechanical problems.
For Andretti Autosport, it marks their second straight victory after Hinchcliffe picked up his first career victory at St. Pete.
“It’s great to come back (and win),” Michael Andetti said. “The team did a great job all weekend and Ryan did a helluva job. This is awesome. So happy for DHL and the DHL car and Sundrop and everybody. Great to keep Chevy’s day going.”
Scott Dixon would make a pass late on Castroneves was second and chase down Hunter-Reay, however he would not be able to make the pass. It marks his fourth runner-up finish at Barber in four starts on the road course.
“It was a bit tough,” Dixon said. “The restart was Ryan went, and then slowed, and then went again. Will (Power) got flustered there and it jumbled up the line. We had the quickest car out there, but obviously will have go buy a bridesmaid’s dress cause we were second again.”
The race featured only one caution right at the beginning, though Dixon said it wasn’t too bad to handle.
“I think when you have a bad car it becomes a lot harder,” he added. “But we had a good car. Congrats to Hunter-Reay. He did a helluva job today.”
Castroneves would hold on to finish third for his second consecutive podium finish of the season. He has now finished in the top seven in each of his four starts at Barber. Castroneves’ day didn’t start out well after getting jumbled up on the initial start of the race.
“I was boxed in and obviously, I saw Dixon try to pass Will and then he got shoved into the side so everybody went wide and all of sudden I went ‘Come on Will! Come on’,” he said. “We got knocked to the back there and we had to change our strategy.”
Castroneves now has the points lead, nine points ahead of Dixon, 13 points ahead of Hunter-Reay.
“I thought we would have been able to hold on, but it was a little tough,” Castroneves continued. “At least we got a podium and we keep gaining points.”
Charlie Kimball would make a pass on Will Power late to finish fourth for his second career top five finish.
“I knew that if I got there in turn 13 that I could get by him,” Kimball said. “I could then get away from him if I got by him as he was saving fuel. I got to thank Will for giving me room there.”
It marks his first top five since finishing second in Toronto last year.
“We had a good weekend,” he added. “It was good all of the race. Those guys in the pit lane did me solid – good clean stops and I just had to drive it at the end.”
Power would round out the top five in fifth after starting off the race in the gravel.
“Just got in the dirt,” Power said. “Nothing more to say there. Definitely a bad start so we just went for a big fuel save.
“I was just trying to keep people behind me. Kimball made a great move. I just had it in my mind that I was going to get this number and make it tough for people to get by.”
On the start of the race, Kimball would make a three-wide move on Hunter-Reay and Power and with Power on the outside, he was into the dirt. The move bottle-necked the field up, causing Oriol Servia and Graham Rahal to play bumper cars, resulting in a spin for Servia. Power fell from second to eighth in that mess on the start. Power would then get off the pavement once again on the restart. That incident marked the only caution of the day.
Simon Pagenaud finished sixth, followed by Marco Andretti, Justin Wilson, Josef Newgarden and rookie Tristan Vautier.
AJ Allmendinger would finish 19th in his return to IndyCar racing after stalling on pit lane.
“All around, I thought that day went fairly well – up until that stop,” he commented. “I knew that going to two sets to those guys three would hurt us. Trying to learn how this is going. Fell like we’d finish 11th or 12th but stalled in the pits. Don’t know why. It wouldn’t rev up and as soon as I put the clutch in, it just stalled. At the end, we pitted so early that we had to save fuel that whole stint. Proud of Penske for all of their hard work. Thanks to Roger for this opportunity.”
Following his win last week, Hinchcliffe wouldn’t be lucky this week as he would stop in turn three as a result of a tire falling off. Without any cautions for the rest of the race, Hinchcliffe was left in the turn.
“We got hit on lap one and as we went there, the tire came off,” he said. “I thought we could get a toe there so that way we could get back out there cause that’s all that was wrong. You dig yourself in a hole. You qualify back there and these things happen. This is just a weekend to forget. Everything that could happen, happened.”
Hinchcliffe joked about being parked there, saying that he had a good view of the people and seeing the back of everybody’s car. He added that he would have taken a nap, but “these racecars were just going by making so much noise that I couldn’t sleep.”
Dario Franchitti would fail to finish the race due to an electrical problem.
