Interview With Ryan Hunter Reay
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May 26, 2008
Ron McQueeney/IMs
Q: Have you talked to your marketing folks yet and how this is going to help your program and where do you go from here?
HUNTER-REAY: I don’t know, I’m just happy to bring the car home as top rookie and amongst the drivers we did, you know. P6, like I said, we’re punching above our weight and to give this result to Ethanol, they certainly deserve it. They deserve a win, and hopefully we can do that this year. I certainly believe we can, given some luck. What was nice about today is we didn’t have any luck. We didn’t have bad luck, we didn’t have good luck, we just had no luck, and that’s what I need.
Q: Ryan, a couple of times I think when you got Hideki, you were an inch or two away from the front straight away wall on the inside. What was in your mind?
HUNTER-REAY: That’s hairy; it looks like there’s no room. You’re sitting so low you can only see the tops of the tires pretty much, he’s here, here are the tires. And he’s blocking. I can’t tell you how bad that pissed me off. I was methodical about it, and I set him up and I found where his weaknesses were and the amount of relief when I passed him, you know, was huge. I wanted to throw a No. 1 sign out the door when I did. (Laughter)
Q: Ryan we’ve seen a lot of rookies over the last couple years either have accidents or struggle mightily in their first race. What was the thing for you that separated you from those other rookies that didn’t have as good run as you have?
HUNTER-REAY: That’s a good question. I think it was just to keep my margins in the beginning, just learn, learn what the car is going to give you, drive within the car’s limits, and, hey, you know, if you put a good driver in a good car, you know, you’ll end up getting it. That’s for sure. You’ll end up working it out. This kid drove an amazing right race today right here, Vitor. Good job, buddy.
Q: Ryan, Rahal Letterman has been kind of overlooked the last couple years. What does this finish do to boost that team’s momentum? And also, did Dave have anything to say to you after the finish?
HUNTER-REAY: He said just five spots away from being on my show. (Laughter)
That’s what went through my head. But he’s been a great guy. He’s cool. He’s so laid back, you know. He just shows up in like shorts and a T-shirt and says let’s go have a good time. It’s great for Ethanol, great for all the supporters. This team has had its fair share of bumps along the road, and God bless him, Paul Dana, and then with Jeff and just the rocks in the road, it’s nice to have some momentum going here. These guys certainly deserve it.
Q: You talked about what was going on in front of you and your race strategy, but at what point did it start to kick in and say I can make this happen if this happens? When did you really start to feel comfortable and start letting things fall into place?
HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, when that line gets shorter and shorter in front of you after each pit stop and after each time you pick off cars and you’re so busy in your only little world there as you’re going through the stint, all of a sudden you’re sitting there with 50 laps to go in the race and only four cars in front of you and it was like, ‘OK, this is running now.’ We were with some great company up there, you know. Like I said, the Ganassi cars deserve to be up there. Scott certainly deserved to win the race. But Ganassi, AGR and Penske are winning the war right now in the series. They’re on top of it every weekend. It’s almost like sometimes the race starts at P8 because there’s those cars on some ovals. But here the driver really matters. It’s nice to crack into that dominated area by the big three.
