RACE DEBRIEF: Iowa INDYCAR 250s – Race 2

After another night of racing under the Iowa Speedway lights, the Andretti quintet charged the grid for the 250-lap race, ending the weekend with mixed results. Rounding out this weekend’s doubleheader, the team now has three weeks to prepare for Round 7 at Mid-Ohio.

No. 27 AUTONATION / NAPA AUTO PARTS HONDA

  • STARTED 21st // FINISHED 8th
  • CHAMPIONSHIP: 10th (118 pts.)
  • OF NOTE: Ran as high as fifth during the race before settling into eighth for the checkered flag

“Everyone hung in there and the AutoNation / NAPA guys were awesome in the pits again, which is so great and such a reward for their hard work this offseason – couldn’t have done that without them. Rob had a good strategy call to get us back on the lead lap. Ultimately, I think it was an okay day considering where we started. I think we were a little bit worse in some places than yesterday and a little bit better in some places. I think, ultimately, we just had an eighth-place car so that’s the way it went. We’ll keep marching forward.”

No. 98 U.S. CONCRETE / CURB HONDA
Andretti Herta Autosport w/ Marco Andretti & Curb-Agajanian

  • STARTED 17th // FINISHED 10th
  • CHAMPIONSHIP: 21th (71 pts.)
  • OF NOTE: Recovered from Friday’s mechanical issue to bring home a first top-10 finish of the season and a 107th of Andretti’s career

“We had a drama free race tonight. I think this is our first one of 2020 without something going bad on our car. I think we should probably have about four top 10s by now, but we just have to play it where it lies and just try to build from here. We can’t really look at points at this point, we just have to focus race by race and Indy is a championship in itself. If we can build even more confidence through Mid-Ohio it will be even better.”

No. 88 CAPSTONE TURBINE HONDA 
Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport

  • STARTED 5th // FINISHED 19th
  • CHAMPIONSHIP: 7th (140 pts.)
  • OF NOTE: Crew worked late into the night to repair the 88 car for tonight’s race but struggled to find the pace to advance in Race 2

“It was a pretty disappointing day. We just didn’t really have the pace today. We went loose, and around here if you make a small mistake in setup it just bites you badly and we saw that. I think we had some high parts to the weekend and, unfortunately, we ended on a low, but fortunately we have a lot of time to go through everything before Mid-Ohio and make sure we are ready for that race.”

No. 26 GAINBRIDGE HONDA

  • STARTED 22nd // FINISHED 20th
  • CHAMPIONSHIP: 19th (95 pts.)
  • OF NOTE: Was running in the top 10 then fought through handling issues ending his night in 20th

“Honestly, this is maybe the toughest weekend in INDYCAR I’ve had in my career. This is a place where we have always been pretty strong, and we just didn’t have it when we rolled off this weekend. We struggled with the car all through practice, qualifying and the race on the first day. We tried to make a Hail Mary today, going back to a setup we knew was good last year and it just didn’t give us what we were looking for, so we were just stuck struggling today as well. It’s just frustrating. These ovals, you can only go as quick as your car goes. It’s just tough. I want to thank my Gainbridge crew for sticking with it. They worked insanely hard this weekend to give me a good car. With these tight schedules, when you unroll with something that isn’t great, it’s hard to make it better in a short amount of time.”

No. 28 DHL HONDA

  • STARTED 4th // FINISHED 22nd
  • CHAMPIONSHIP: 15th (104 pts.)
  • OF NOTE: Credited with leading four laps before making contact with the inside wall while exiting pit lane on his final stop of the night // Retired on Lap 180 due to damage

“I was looking to make up a lot of track time on that out lap and I short-shifted out of second gear, knowing that first [gear] was my problem last night. I got on it in second and it just came around. I almost caught it – but almost doesn’t count. It sucks. The guys on the 28 team certainly don’t deserve that. We had a rough night, we were hanging on, but we were at least P6, P7. We were really looking forward to getting the ball rolling here for the season. It’s been one thing or another, and obviously this is down to me. It’s unfortunate. DHL and AutoNation, they all deserve results and we are working on it. I was just pushing 110% and just asked a little too much of it there.”