Breaking news
IndyCar Mid-Ohio
Hunter-Reay: "I don't know what Newgarden was thinking"
Andretti Autosport driver Ryan Hunter-Reay says he was “baffled” by IndyCar points leader Josef Newgarden’s late attempt to pass him for third in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.
Jack Benyon
Edited: Jul 30, 2019, 6:06 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Hunter-Reay ended an 11-race streak without a podium to seal third behind the duelling Chip Ganassi Racing-Hondas of Scott Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist, but a last-lap clash threatened to ruin his race.
At the Keyhole hairpin on the last lap, Newgarden dived up the inside of Hunter-Reay, made contact, and then Newgarden spun into the gravel, ending his race.
“I'm not really sure what Josef was thinking there doing that,” said Hunter-Reay. “He tried to go around the outside, and the line through that corner is that you do a diamond and you come back to the apex, so he had to expect I was coming back at some point, and then just shoved his nose in there.
“I don't know, with the championship like that, leader, totally baffled me. I'm just glad it didn't cut down our right rear tyre after fighting like that all day."
Read Also:
- Dixon admits "bad choices" left him vulnerable to Rosenqvist
- Mid-Ohio IndyCar: Dixon beats charging Rosenqvist, Newgarden spins
Newgarden – who had recovered from a fuel issue earlier in the race to run fourth and best of the Penske drivers – accepted blame for the incident, which allowed race winner Dixon to close the gap in the drivers' standings to 62 points with four races to go.
“I forced the issue probably,” Newgarden told NBC after the race. “I was trying to get on the podium there, I got inside of him and lost power, it started looping around.
"It’s my fault trying to force the issue there. I wish I could have maintained the engine. I wish we could have done a bit more at the end, it just wasn’t meant to be.”
Hunter-Reay has struggled in recent races, failing to score a top-10 for three races before Mid-Ohio, but his first podium since March's COTA race has lifted him to sixth in the standings.
“Obviously we've had a string of pretty poor results lately, and it's just a matter of execution,” he said. “Right now as competitive as this series is, if you're missing a tenth and a half here or a tenth there, it's a big deficit, and if you're not executing 100 percent on strategy or approach or any of it, there's going to be somebody else who is.
“Yeah, we just missed a few, and it's nice to be back where we should be when we executed. That's what we did today.”
Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport Honda
Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / LAT Images
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Dixon admits "bad choices" left him vulnerable to Rosenqvist
Next article Rosenqvist: Ganassi 'trusted me' not to take out Dixon
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jack Benyon
Aitken, Samaia make up Campos' F2 line-up
FIA F2
FIA F2
Aitken, Samaia make up Campos' F2 line-up
DiBenedetto intends to “turn heads” with Wood Brothers
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
DiBenedetto intends to “turn heads” with Wood Brothers
Tanak "learned a very good lesson" from Monte crash
WRC
WRC
Tanak "learned a very good lesson" from Monte crash
More from
Josef Newgarden
Team Penske and Chevrolet announce multi-year extension of IndyCar partnership
IndyCar
IndyCar
Team Penske and Chevrolet announce multi-year extension of IndyCar partnership
Winners and losers from the IndyCar doubleheader at Milwaukee
IndyCar
IndyCar
Milwaukee Race 2
Winners and losers from the IndyCar doubleheader at Milwaukee
Josef Newgarden denied home repeat victory, finishes second at Nashville
IndyCar
IndyCar
Nashville
Josef Newgarden denied home repeat victory, finishes second at Nashville
Latest news
Marc Marquez targeting “as close to 37 points as possible” at Aprilia-friendly Phillip Island
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
12 min
Marc Marquez targeting “as close to 37 points as possible” at Aprilia-friendly Phillip Island
Porsche's IMSA GTP programme set to end: Could Penske switch to Cadillac?
WEC
WEC WEC
Losail
25 min
Porsche's IMSA GTP programme set to end: Could Penske switch to Cadillac?
“It will be so sad” - MotoGP riders lament loss of Phillip Island
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
1 h
“It will be so sad” - MotoGP riders lament loss of Phillip Island
NASCAR explains why they penalized Zane Smith after latest clash with Carson Hocevar
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
16 h
NASCAR explains why they penalized Zane Smith after latest clash with Carson Hocevar
Feature
Discover prime content
Inside AJ Foyt Racing’s transition: Hauger’s arrival, Ferrucci’s future, and the Pierson waiting game
Feature
IndyCar
Feature
IndyCar
By Joey Barnes
Inside AJ Foyt Racing’s transition: Hauger’s arrival, Ferrucci’s future, and the Pierson waiting game
You Ask The Questions: David Malukas
IndyCar
By Joey Barnes
You Ask The Questions: David Malukas
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe