Hunter-Reay adjusts for Indy 500

Published May 12th, 2008

By Ryan Hunter-Reay
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS

We’ve been making a lot of changes to the No. 17 Rahal Letterman Racing Team Ethanol car to get a read from the data. We haven’t gotten the speed out of it yet that we are hoping for.

We’ve had some rain in Indianapolis that has hurt our practice time.

But, that’s part of the deal here. You have to be patient.

We’ve run at other tracks this year where we haven’t had the speed we wanted in practice and the next few practices we got it all together. We’ll just go about it the way we usually do and I have no doubt we will be ready for the race.

For qualifying, you pretty much have to hang the car out as much as you can.
It’s going to be pretty hairy, for sure. It’s what separates the men from the boys.

That’s what Indy is all about: Suck it up and go for it.

The thing is, qualifying can be ruined in the first two laps. You have to keep your mind on that. You can’t go and ruin your whole month by sticking it in the wall in qualifying.

It’s a 500-mile race. By the time you make your first pit stop, everything can be either upside-down on its head or right where you want it, regardless of your qualifying position.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is unbelievable. It’s an amazing feeling being here.

Just how big this place is, how much focus everybody puts on it and the history here, the whole race is bigger than I imagined.

It’s fun. I love being at the track every day.

Some days, when you don’t have as much speed as you are hoping for, it’s a bit frustrating.

But other days it can be more rewarding.

With it being my first year at Indy, it’s a learning process for me too. I raced Champ Cars for five years but this is my first time here. You learn more and more every day.

I love it here. I absolutely can’t wait to qualify and I can’t wait to race.