By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter
Ryan Hunter-Reay became the first victim of the turn 4 wall during this morning’s practice for tomorrow evening’s Iowa Corn 300 at Iowa Speedway.
The three time Iowa Speedway winner lost control of his No. 28 DHL Honda coming off of turn 4 and gently backed it into the SAFER barrier. Hunter-Reay was doing a qualifying simulation and had only completed three laps prior to crashing and had the third quickest time..
He noted that the combination of some slight bumps in the corner along with the track not being rubbered in caused the spin.
“I was on the final lap of my qual sim,” he said. “Combined with the patches down there (Turn 4) and the track still pretty green, not a lot of Firestone rubber down, the rear just snapped.”
Hunter-Reay’s Andretti Autosport teammate Marco Andretti spun earlier in the session in almost the same spot but did not make contact with anything.
The Andretti Autosport crew made repairs to the car and Hunter-Reay was on pit lane ready to turn some more laps in just a matter of 25 minutes.
Qualifying for tomorrow’s Iowa Corn 300 begins at 2:00 pm CST and will be televised live on the NBC Sports Network.
