LONG BEACH, California – The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach proved to be a tale of two races for a pair of Andretti Autosport teammates.
Marco Andretti put in a methodical drive from the back of the field to finish sixth in Sunday’s Verizon IndyCar Series race. Meanwhile, Ryan Hunter-Reay suffered through a string of mishaps to finish 20th.
After starting seventh, Hunter-Reay’s day immediately became an uphill battle when his No. 28 DHL Honda suffered a broken front wing on the opening lap due to an accordion effect when Graham Rahal hit the back of Simon Pagenaud at the front of the field entering Turn 1. Restarting 21st on Lap 4, he made a charge through the field and broke into the top 10 by Lap 16. Hunter-Reay even managed to nab the lead on Lap 31 during a cycle of pit stops.
Just when there looked to be a glimmer of hope, disaster struck again. Running fifth on Lap 47, Hunter-Reay suffered a right-rear tire puncture from contact with Takuma Sato. By the time he limped his car to the pits for the tire change, Hunter-Reay was a lap down in 19th position.
The 37-year-old Floridian refocused and clawed his way back onto the lead lap when he was held up in an incident at the Turn 11 hairpin on Lap 72 after Jordan King turned Sebastien Bourdais.
Insult was added to injury six laps later when Hunter-Reay suffered another broken front wing and a damaged toe link from contact with the wall. He wound up completing 81 of the 85 laps.
“Just a broken front wing at the start and then came back through the field from last to fifth,” Hunter-Reay said. “Then Sato ran into the back of me and punctured my rear, so I had to come back again. Then come back through to 13th or whatever it was, and then Bourdais had the spin from Jordan King taking him out. Then I got stuck there, so I went back again.
“Man, we went back like five times. Then in the end, tried to make too much happen and lost the rear, touched it with the wall and had to come in and replace the toe link.”
Andretti’s race was much more uneventful in the No. 98 U.S. Concrete/Curb Honda. He minimized mistakes and pounced on other drivers’ misfortunes around the 11-turn, 1.968-mile street circuit to secure his second top-10 finish of the young season.
The 31-year-old from Nazareth, Pennsylvania, withstood pressure from reigning Verizon IndyCar Series champion Josef Newgarden over the final five laps to finish sixth and score his best result since placing fourth at Toronto last July.
"We had to just be persistent today,” said Andretti. “Me and the guys, we just stayed in it and didn't make mistakes. This race just comes down to attrition sometimes. There are so many corners where you can get taken out if you go too deep.
“I keep saying that as soon as we qualify in the top 10, we're going to win a race.”
The Verizon IndyCar Series returns to action Sunday, April 22 with the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at the scenic Barber Motorsports Park road course in Birmingham, Alabama. The race airs live at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network.