Hunter-Reay earns first IndyCar win of 2015; Americans sweep podium
NEWTON, Iowa -- Ryan Hunter-Reay's season of doom ended at the site of his most recent victory as the Andretti Autosport Honda driver won Saturday night's Iowa Corn 300 Verizon IndyCar Series race at Iowa Speedway. His last win before Saturday night came in this race last season.
Hunter-Reay's victory was the sixth-straight time a driver from Andretti Autosport has won at Iowa Speedway. Hunter-Reay has won on three of those occasions.
"Man, I love Iowa," team owner Michael Andretti said. "I don't understand why we run so great here. We've had good luck here and have had good setups here. I'm so happy we got the DHL car back into victory lane."
Hunter-Reay defeated fellow American driver Josef Newgarden by 0.5046 seconds. Rookie driver Sage Karam finished third followed by Graham Rahal as drivers from the United States swept the top four positions in the Heartland of America.
"It felt like we had something there but man, this Honda was on rails at the end," Hunter-Reay said. "I was driving the snot out of it. It was loose and it was a lot of work in the cockpit. This one we really had to work for. At the beginning of the race it was really loose. This is amazing to get into victory lane again. We're having a tough year but man, we got into victory lane."
Ed Carpenter confronted Karam on pit road after the race after some questionable moves from the young rookie driver late in the race. Carpenter had a stern lecture for Karam and that's where it ended.
It was also an impactful night of racing for the major contenders in the Verizon IndyCar Series championship, and what could have been a moment of doom for Juan Pablo Montoya was greatly mitigated when his main rival also had issues in Saturday night's race.
Drivers that entered in first, second and third in the Verizon IndyCar Series standings all suffered issues in the race.
Montoya entered the race with a 54-point lead over Scott Dixon and has been in front of the standings all season. But on Lap 9, his first big incident of the season happened when his Chevrolet crashed in Turn 2, knocking him out of the race.
"Something broke," Montoya said. "As soon as I loaded it up something broke. Something failed. I'm a little bruised. No big deal. Our Verizon Chevy was a good car. I was just taking it easy and biding my time. It was early in the race. Something broke and as soon as I loaded it up it broke. I want to find out what happened. As soon as it loaded it the car just went right.
"It sucks when it is completely out of our hands and something fails. I'd like to know what happened. I want to see the car first before I say what happened. The car was sitting on the bottom and this place is really high load. I feel good. The points - it is what it is. It's a long year."
The early exit for Montoya broke a string of 18-consecutive race finishes. His last DNF came at this track last July.
Dixon had the most to gain with Montoya's early departure but Dixon's Chevrolet suffered a major issue on the right rear of his car with either a CV joint failure or broken half-shaft on Lap 234.
Graham Rahal entered the race third in the standings, just 69 behind Montoya, but he had two problems in the race. Earlier in the race, Rahal lost two laps because of flat tire but he was able to get back on the lead lap after the other drivers made green flag pit stops.
Rahal had another problem later in the race when his car stalled in the pits on Lap 177. By the time he got the issue resolved he had lost a lap.
Montoya finished last in the 24-car field, while Dixon finished 18th. Rahal was able to overcome his issue to get back to the lead on Lap 257 when other drivers made their final pit stops.
Takuma Sato hit the wall on Lap 262 to bring out the yellow flag with Hunter-Reay in front of Newgarden, Karam and Carlos Munoz.
Rahal was able to pit during the caution period and that got him back on the lead lap. Hunter-Reay was the leader in front of Newgarden and Karam. The green flag waved on Lap 278 - 22 laps from the checkered flag. Karam and Rahal drove hard from behind with cars bobbing and weaving all over the track to finish inside the top five.
Rahal's comeback boosted him to second in the championship standings, 42 points behind leader Montoya. Dixon drops to third, 48 points adrift from Montoya.
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