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[/media-credit]Andretti Autosport IZOD IndyCar Series Race Report:
Firestone 550 at Texas Motor Speedway
James Hinchcliffe, Team GoDaddy.com Chevrolet, No. 27
Hinchcliffe led eight laps and had a strong run to finish fourth in the Firestone 550. Hinchcliffe is now third in the IZOD IndyCar Series point standings after his sixth top-10 finish in seven starts.
“It was a pretty solid day for us. You know, we had a quick car, and we could run with the leaders. We made a strategy decision halfway through the race to not take tires when some of the leaders did. In hindsight, it might not have been the best call, but we had a good enough car to run back up through the field.
“We had good Chevy power all race long. The last stint, you were really hanging onto those cars. It got so loose – it was the longest last 10 laps of my life. But huge credit to to the guys in the pits. The crew was solid and it’s good to have the Go Daddy car back in the top-five again after the disappointment at Detroit.”
Marco Andretti, Team RC Cola Chevrolet, No. 26
Andretti had one of the fastest cars throughout the evening, running among the top-five for the first half of the race until a fire enveloped the RC Cola machine after a pit stop on lap 113, and Andretti was forced to pit again. The extra stop dropped the team six laps behind the leaders. Andretti finished 17th.
“That’s a disappointing finish because we were really fast tonight. We could run with the leaders, but the carcaught fire after a stop and I had to come back in. It was out by then, but we lost a lot of laps. It’s frustrating because it was a really fast car. Now, it’s on to Milwaukee. If we can catch a break, we have the speed to win.”
Ryan Hunter-Reay, Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda Chevrolet, No. 28
Hunter-Reay made a dramatic charge in the opening stint of the race, making passes in the outside groove to move from his 13th-place starting spot into the top-five. Hunter-Reay began to suffer a loss of power, and he pulled into the pits on lap 66 with terminal issues. Hunter-Reay finished 21st.
“I don’t know what happened. It just lost power – slowly but surely, we were losing power. It’s unfortunate. We had a really good start to the season and were really good in points, but now we’ve had some mechanical issues. It’s just so unfortunate because these DHL / Sun Drop guys work so hard. I think we had a good race car going… On new tires, I was able to make up a lot of positions on the outside. On old tires we didn’t have the best of balance. We were tuning on it, and would have been good… I think it might be time for me to cut off the facial hair. I don’t know what else to do.”
