IOWA CORN INDY 250
When: 1:30 p.m. Sunday (ABC)
Where: Iowa Speedway in Newton
Distance: 250 laps (218.75 miles)
Defending champ: Ryan Hunter-Reay
Tickets: Available at iowaspeedway.com or by calling 1-866-787-8946. Weekend pass (Saturday-Sunday) is from $30 to 70; Sunday pass is from $20 to $60.
Written by Jeff Olson – Special to the Des Moines Register
When Ryan Hunter-Reay thinks about Iowa Speedway, he thinks about the late Dan Wheldon.
“It’s one of my favorite stories,” Hunter-Reay says, recalling the time in 2011 when he and wife Beccy Gordon, then his girlfriend, walked into La Cabana, a Mexican restaurant in Newton on a Friday night before the race. When they were finished, only Wheldon, his wife, Susie, and Wheldon’s manager, Mickey Ryan, remained at La Cabana.
That’s when Hunter-Reay realized he’d left his wallet in his motorcoach at the racetrack.
“I didn’t realize I had no money until we were about to get up and leave,” Hunter-Reay said. “Beccy didn’t have anything, either. The only other people in the restaurant at the time were Dan, Susie and Mickey. I had to crawl over and ask for a loan.”
Wheldon playfully picked up the tab and never asked to be paid back, but Hunter-Reay insisted. “But he never let me forget about it,” Hunter-Reay said. “Everywhere I went after that, he asked if I had my wallet.”
Five years after Wheldon won at Iowa Speedway and nearly two years after he was killed in a crash in Las Vegas, Hunter-Reay is reminded of that night as he prepares to defend his victory in the Iowa Corn Indy 250. He’s on a roll, much like he was last year, having won Saturday at The Milwaukee Mile and standing second in the Izod IndyCar Series championship.
Last year, a three-race winning streak — at Milwaukee, Iowa and Toronto — put him in position to win the championship. This time, he comes to Newton with even more confidence than last year.
“I feel like we’re certainly in a better position this time,” Hunter-Reay said. “We’re second rather than seventh in points, so we’re closer to the fight at this time of the year. Last year, if you would’ve asked people, they probably wouldn’t have listed us as a favorite.”
This time, almost everybody does. After Saturday’s win at Milwaukee, Michael Andretti said Hunter-Reay is “in his prime.” There’s little argument to be made against that, especially considering the statistical evidence. Starting with last year’s win at Milwaukee, Hunter-Reay, 32, has won six of the last 17 IndyCar races, with two pole positions, two second-place finishes and one third during that span.
“He’s at the perfect age,” Andretti said. “He’s got all the experience he needs. He knows exactly what he needs in a race car. He knows what he needs when he’s at certain positions in the race. Those are the things you just learn through experience.”
Instead, Hunter-Reay credits the team. All three Andretti Autosport drivers — Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti and James Hinchcliffe — have been fast this year.
“Anybody can do that, anybody that’s firing on all cylinders,” Hunter-Reay said. “It does feel similar to last year, but I’m looking forward to seeing how the Iowa race plays out. I don’t expect to win three in a row, but we are going into it with confidence.”
The key to Iowa’s fast, progressively banked layout is the challenge to find the proper balance on the car. “It places a premium on balance and handling,” Hunter-Reay said. “What I enjoy the most about it is that has a feeling like no other racetrack. The banking and what it does to the grip level isn’t like other places we race.”
After the win at Milwaukee, Andretti joked that Hunter-Reay, whose son Ryden is six months old, got his first Father’s Day gift. But for Hunter-Reay, who bounced from team to team before settling in at Andretti Autosport in 2010, job security is the real gift.
“For the first time in my career I can actually go to bed at night not wondering about whether I will have a ride next year,” Hunter-Reay said. “I believe that working with them is a great relationship. You need other people to make success happen, and I’ve found it here.”
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