Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport
The cast: Race engineer – Ray Gosselin. Race strategist – Michael Andretti. Chief mechanic – Josh Freund.
Twitter: @RyanHunterReay, @FollowAndretti
The car: No. 28 Honda, DHL primary sponsorship
The driver: Ryan Hunter-Reay turns 34 on Dec. 17. … He resides in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., with his wife, Beccy, and son, Ryden. He recently was inducted into the Broward County Hall of Fame. He'll compete in December in the Race of Champions in Barbados for the second time. … Hunter-Reay earned the 2012 Verizon IndyCar Series title and in May won the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race for the first time in an exciting dash to the finish.
Season finish: Placed sixth in Verizon IndyCar Series championship standings – one spot better than 2013. He’s been in the top seven of the standings each of the past five years.
The gist: Hunter-Reay, who completed his fifth season with Andretti Autosport, signed a three-year extension with the team in July. DHL also extended its sponsorship package. … He has started 169 Indy car races since 2003 (when he won at Surfers Paradise to become the first American rookie driver to win a Champ Car race in more than 20 years). … His three victories tied series champion Will Power for most during the season.
Season stats: Hunter-Reay qualified for the Firestone Fast Six in the first four races, earning the pole at Long Beach and starting on the second row in the other races. The efforts led to victory at Barber (second year in a row) and runner-up finishes at St. Petersburg and in the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis. He led 51 of the 80 laps at Long Beach but contact with 24 laps left relegated him to 20th place. … He followed with the Indianapolis 500 victory after qualifying 19th to sit atop the championship standings. He then hit a three-race skid in which 16th was his best finish. Consecutive top 10s at Houston and a stirring victory at Iowa Speedway after starting 13th got Hunter-Reay to third in the standings. The next four races produced one top-10 finish, though he qualified in the top five in three of the events, and he closed with a runner-up finish at Sonoma and 16th at Auto Club Speedway. … Overall, had six podium and nine top-10 finishes. … Led seven races for total of 195 laps to crack 1,000 laps led in his career. … Was running at the finish in 13 of the 18 races.
Year over year: 2013 best qualifying first at Barber, Sao Paulo and Mid-Ohio (5.4 average), best finish first at Barber and Milwaukee (11.6 average). 2014 best qualifying first at Long Beach, best finish first in Indianapolis 500, at Barber and Iowa.
Video: Ryan Hunter-Reay reviews his season
He said it: “It was a really strong season for us. We just lacked some consistency. It was a struggle at times; it was frustrating knowing that we had the car to win and we just didn’t seal the deal. But we were running up front, we have the ‘500’ under our belts, and now with a three-year deal being back home with Andretti Autosport we can challenge for more championships.”
The chart (below): Looking at how Hunter-Reay finished relative to his qualifying position:
Click to download the hi-res infographic
