Hunter-Reay, Honda Head Indy Car Field In Monterey

 

MONTEREY, Calif. (September 20, 2019) – Honda-powered Ryan Hunter-Reay led the way today at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in the opening day of NTT IndyCar Series practice in preparation for Sunday’s season-ending Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey. Marking the return of Indy car racing to the Monterey peninsula for the first time in 14 years, Hunter-Reay’s best lap time of 1:09.9105 edged fellow Honda racer Alexander Rossi by just two-hundredths of a second to claim honors for the day.

 

Championship contender Rossi, who enters the weekend 41 points behind leader Josef Newgarden with 100 points on offer for the race winner, ended the day fourth overall.  His primary title rivals, Simon Pagenaud and Newgarden, ended the day fifth and seventh, respectively.

 

Activities continue Saturday at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca with final practice and qualifying for Sunday’s 90-lap race. Television coverage of the finalround of the 2019 season begins at 2:30 p.m. EDT Sunday on NBC.

 

Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport Honda) Fastest inFriday practice: “I’m feeling better about the car, but it’s still very tricky out there. There’s a very small window to get it right. I’m not really resting on this one, we have a lot more to do still. It’s tough out there for everyone, and the margin is very, very thin. I think we can still make the car better. We’re going to work to head in the right direction and hopefully put the DHL car on the front row.”

 

 

NTT IndyCar Series Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey

Circuit:​​WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca (2.238-mile road course) Monterey, Calif.

Weather:​Sunny, mild, 77 degrees F

 

Top-10, Honda Friday Practice Session Results:

Ps.	Driver​	Team	Manufacturer	Best Time	Notes
1.	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	Honda	1:09.9105	115.244 mph average
2.	Felix Rosenqvist-R	Chip Ganassi Racing​	Honda	1:09.9305
3.	Colton Herta-R	Harding Steinbrenner Racing	Honda	1:09.9317
4.	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	Honda	1:10.0988
5.	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	Chevrolet	1:10.1352
6.	Santino Ferrucci-R	Dale Coyne Racing​	Honda	1:10.2066
7.	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	Chevrolet	1:10.2248
8.	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	1:10.2722
9.	Will Power	Team Penske	Chevrolet	1:10.3350
10.	Marcus Ericsson	Arrow Schmidt Peterson	Honda	1:10.3910

Other Honda Results

12.	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	Honda	1:10.4426
13.	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan	Honda	1:10.4468
15.	Conor Daly	Andretti Autosport	Honda	1:10.4633
17.	Zach Veach	Andretti Autosport	Honda	1:10.6620
19.	Sebastien Bourdais	DCR with Vasser-Sullivan​	Honda	1:10.7071
20.	James Hinchcliffe	Arrow Schmidt Peterson	Honda	1:10.7730
21.	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan	Honda	1:10.8807
24.	Jack Havey	Meyer Shank Racing​	Honda	1:11.0584