Hunter-Reay tames wild Iowa IndyCar race

Ryan Hunter-Reay has exorcised his 2015 demons by posting his maiden season win in the Iowa Corn 300.

Hunter-Reay stretched a winning streak for the Andretti Autosport team to six years at the Iowa oval, beating Josef Newgarden (CHF Racing) by .50s with Sage Karam claiming third.

Karam had caught the ire of several drivers including Ed Carpenter for his tactics in the closing laps of a crash-strewn event with the latter giving the Ganassi rookie a verbal dressing down shortly after the finish.

It failed to take the gloss off Hunter-Reay’s effort which came as a relief after a season of frustration.

“This 28# DHL Honda was on rails in the end,” Hunter-Reay beamed.

“I was driving the snot out of it. After such a tough season its great to be back in victory lane.”

Team owner Michael Andretti was in raptures over the effort to continue a rich vein of form at Iowa.

“We love Iowa, man its unbelievable. I can’t understand why we are so good here,” Andretti said.

“If we knew we would try to do that everywhere.”

The race saw points leader Juan Montoya exit the scene in the opening minutes, click here for separate story, which opened the door to the chasers to eat into his advantage.

However the damage to Montoya’s quest for the title was limited in a race littered with crashes and incidents.

Graham Rahal moved up one position in the standings to second after finishing fourth ahead of Carlos Munoz and Carpenter.

Marco Andretti soldiered on to finish seventh ahead of Ryan Briscoe.

Will Power never appeared to be a front-running factor, finishing 10th, one position ahead of team-mate Helio Castroneves.

Elsewhere Justin Wilson (Andretti Autosport) brushed the wall just over one third race distance trying to avoid Pippa Mann who was fighting an ill-handling Dale Coyne Racing machine.

The incident triggered a caution as Newgarden won the race off pit road in a tense scramble ahead of polesitter Castroneves.

Officials then ordered that they would investigate a possible unsafe release by Castroneves’ Penske crew post-race as he was dispatched back into the fray as Carpenter was entering his pit bay.

With just over 100 laps remaining Stefano Coletti lost the rear into Turn 2 before crunching the inside wall, signalling an end to his night.

At the same time, Ganassi’s Tony Kanaan was enjoying a solid run before a mechanical issue forced him into retirement.

Scott Dixon, classified in 18th, fell back through the field from third position with 70 laps remaining before he pitted for an unscheduled service.

Dixon was ready to fire back into the action however a failure in the rear of the Chevrolet saw him wheeled into the garage as Ganassi’s crew performed a frantic repair and send him back out to collect valuable points.

With just over 35 laps to the chequered flag Takuma Sato brought out a caution after crashing his AJ Foyt machine at Turn 2.

The series now moves to Mid-Ohio for the third last round from July 31-August 2.

See below for full results

See below for full series points

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