Saturday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Ryan Hunter-Reay was able to complete a few installation laps to feel out his backup Dreyer and Reinbold Racing / Cusick Motorsports car.
The veteran’s car caught fire during Friday’s Carb Day practice, forcing him to pull into pit lane and hop out of the car quickly.
Fire crews quickly extinguished the blaze, but enough damage was done to the chassis to force a late switch to the team’s backup car.
Five members of the DRR crew stayed at the track all night and were able to prepare the car as close to the primary car as possible.
IndyCar allowed Hunter-Reay to take his new car around the track for a few laps in order to make sure that there were not any major problems with the build.
He could not complete any full laps and never got the car up to speed, but was still able to verify most of the systems were functioning.
“Hats off to this crew at Dreyer and Reinbold,” Hunter-Reay said over the track PA. “They pulled an all-nighter and did all the hard work.
“We couldn’t get it into gear five minutes before we rolled out here, so luckily the stars aligned on that side of it. I got to run down pit, go through the gears, and that’s all I could ask for.
“I don’t really know what we have until we get fully up to speed.”
Hunter-Reay’s final observation is the most critical, as his first laps at full speed will be when he takes the green flag from 27th on Sunday.
Colton Herta, Scott McLaughlin, and Takuma Sato will also be competing in backup cars, although they have all been able to tweak in their cars before the main event.
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