[h=2]INDYCAR Ryan Hunter-Reay[/h] Robin Miller & Marshall Pruett / Images by IMS Photo



RYAN HUNTER-REAY
NO. 28 ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT HONDA

Preseason hopes: "Three or more race wins."
2016 Best result: 3rd (St Petersburg, Detroit (Sunday), Pocono)
2016 Championship position: 12th (428 points)

Andretti Autosport has underperformed over the past few years, but Hunter-Reay finished 2016 with two of his three teammates ahead of him in the points. What the hell?
MILLER: This is a perfect example of statistics not telling the true story. OK, RHR was 12th in points (four behind Carlos Munoz and two behind Alexander Rossi) and didn't win a race for the first time since before joining Andretti Autosport in 2009. But it certainly wasn't because he wasn't fast enough. Sure there were some struggles at places he'd won at before (Long Beach, Iowa, Watkins Glen), but he was also the man to beat Indy and Pocono before being victimized by things out of his control.
PRUETT: Scott Dixon was Chevy's unlucky dog in 2016, and in the Honda camp, that distinction fell to RHR. He won a race every season for six straight years, and it all went pear-shaped as the Andretti team lost its way, his car became the lightning rod for problems, and he fell from sixth in 2015 to 12th in the standings. Let's also keep in mind RHR had as many podiums (three) as all three of his teammates combined. Minus the misfortune, and with a competitive car, we know RHR is a title contender.

Was he on an island in terms of developing and setting up cars?

MILLER: Certainly seemed to be the case, and it appeared he found something in the Sonoma test that he passed on to his teammates.
PRUETT: Not entirely, but it was close. Teammate Marco Andretti has been on an island in that regard for a while, Alexander Rossi was a rookie who was learning the car, aero kit, and many tracks, and that left RHR and Carlos Munoz to do most of the heavy R&D lifting.

It showed at the season finale, where Andretti broke from tradition and let all four drivers start the event by going their own way on chassis setup. In a year where most of the Andretti cars qualified poorly and in clusters, RHR started sixth and finished fourth. It wasn't his best qualifying performance of the year, but it did demonstrate his ability to find the right path when it mattered. And Rossi wasn't far behind, which also showed how far his understanding of the car evolved during the year.
Could he make an argument for being even unluckier than Dixon this year?

MILLER: Oh, hell yes. Started third at Indianapolis, led 52 laps, and then got collected by his teammate leaving the pits. He charged from 22nd to first at Pocono, stayed out front for 31 laps, and then his car suddenly shut off. He got it recycled and rejoined the race, and stormed back up to third place. He has one of the fastest cars at Texas before the red flag, but the car went to hell when they come back, and he started fourth at Mid-Ohio and ran strong before finding out he got short-filled, so he had to back way off to finish and wound up 18th.

RLL proved in 2015 that Andretti Autosport's problems weren't completely Honda-related, and it did the same thing again this year. Can Hunter-Reay do anything to reverse the trend in 2017?

PRUETT: Absolutely, and it's something he's been pushing for all along. I also don't think he received enough credit for trying to help improve whatever he could as a force from within the team. Andretti missed the boat with its damper program this year and was never going to catch up. That department will receive special attention going into 2017, and with Eric Bretzman installed as technical director, the entire team—and RHR—will rebound. (Sorry, couldn't avoid the bad damper pun).

MILLER: He's still one of the best drivers in the series, so all he's really got to do is be himself and hope whatever worked at Sonoma carries over to 2017, because he's just fine on the ovals.

 

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