Tag Archives: Ryan Briscoe

Hunter-Reay Win In Baltimore Sets Up Fabulous Fontana IndyCar Finale

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Ryan Hunter-Reay’s late race restart ambush of Ryan Briscoe secured a come-from-behind win at the Grand Prix of Baltimore and set up an exciting IndyCar finale at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana in two weeks.

Ryan Hunter-Reay #28 Andretti Autosport - Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

With his win, Hunter-Reay now trails IndyCar series leader Will Power by 17 points going into the final race of the season at SoCal’s Auto Club Speedway on September 15th.  With the race winner collecting 50 points, if Hunter-Reay also wins at Fontana, Will Power must finish second or third to take the IndyCar series title – fourth or worse, and Hunter-Reay takes the crown.

WIll Power #12 Team Penske - Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

Will Power, who has been at the top of the series standings most of the season and was on fire early in the season with three consecutive victories, has not won since Sao Paolo Indy 300 in April.  Meanwhile, Ryan Hunter-Reay has gotten hot, winning three in a row himself and four of the last seven races, including Baltimore.

The Auto Club Speedway showdown was set up by Hunter-Reay’s fabulous timing of a restart after a late race caution at Baltimore when he accelerated from second place into the lead past Power’s teammate Ryan Briscoe into Turn 1.  Team Penske and Briscoe complained bitterly that  Hunter-Reay jumped the start, but IndyCar race control maintained that Hunter-Reay began the charge after the green flag was waved – a legal restart.  No other drivers are close enough to Power to have a chance to win the championship.  Sure is strange not to have a Target Ganassi driver in contention!

On to the IndyCar finale in Fontana…

Interestingly, SpeedTV has reported that Team Penske is courting Hunter-Reay as a replacement for Briscoe in their third car for next year.  For their part, Andretti Autosport maintains that they intend to have Hunter-Reay resigned for two years by the Fontana finale.  Briscoe’s management has also been aggressively shopping his services to other IndyCar teams as his seat at Penske has been in question for some time.  Sure makes for an interesting build up to Fontana.  Stay tuned…

UPDATE (090712): 

Autosport is reporting here that Hunter-Reay will be staying at Andretti Autosport.

Ryan Briscoe Takes Pole at Indy

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Ryan Briscoe put in a fantastic four lap qualifying run on a warm afternoon at

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Ryan Briscoe at Long Beach

Indianapolis Motor Speedway to take the pole in next Sunday’s Indy 500.  James Hinchcliffe had been fast all day, and he he had Briscoe beat until the final two corners of his last qualifying lap, but he fell short by 0.0023 seconds – the closest margin in the history of the Indy 500.  That’s the equivalent of 9.168 inches over the four laps.

Hinchcliffe said that he went out too hot and was not able to maintain the pace throughout

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James Hinchcliffe at Long Beach

four laps.  He went out again later trying to beat Briscoe by starting slightly slower and trying to hold his pace throughout; however his first lap was slower than Briscoe’s pole taking average and his speed fell off from there.  Nobody else was able to mount a serious challenge to Briscoe’s pole time, although Ryan Hunter-Reay, Helio Castroneves, Marco Andretti, and Will Power all tried.

The first three rows for running of the 96th Indy 500:

  1. Ryan Briscoe
  2. James Hinchcliffe
  3. Ryan Hurnter-Reay
  4. Marco Andretti
  5. Will Power
  6. Helio Castroneves
  7. Josef Newgarden
  8. Tony Kanaan
  9. EJ Viso

Notably, all three Team Penske drivers made the 90 minute, top nine shootout for pole while none of four Target Ganassi drivers did, and Andretti Autosport has three of the fastest four qualifiers.  IZOD IndyCar points leader, Will Power, will start from 5th.  Rookie Josef Newgarden of the underdog Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing team qualified 7th.  Newgarden is also the highest placed Honda powered car on the grid – the other eight of the top nine being Chevrolet powered.  In the rest of the field, Dario Franchitti, reigning IndyCar champion will start 16th, and his teammate Scott Dixon will be 15th on the grid.  IndyCar rookie and 19-year Formula 1 veteran, Rubens Barrichello will start 10th.  SoCal’s Charlie Kimball will start 15th, while his teammate Graham Rahal will be 12th. Last year’s phenom and near winner, JR Hildebrand will start 18th.