Ryan Hunter-Reay Escapes Fire in Carb Day Practice

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

INDIANAPOLIS – Ryan Hunter-Reay got more than he bargained for in the final hour of Carb Day practice Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

After posting the eighth fastest time on the day, the 2014 winner of the Indianapolis 500 saw his No. 23 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing with Cusick Motorsports Chevrolet catch fire, with the inferno growing by the second behind him as he was able to get the machine back to pit road to the attention of the safety crew.

Hunter-Reay scrambled from the machine after bringing it to a stop and thankfully walked away unharmed. The same could not be said for his car, which will have his crew putting in overtime over the next two days to get his car ready for Sunday’s race.

FIRE from the No. 23 machine 😳@RyanHunterReay quickly climbs out of his car on pit lane. pic.twitter.com/sNjIYLUWOI

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) May 23, 2025

“I don’t know,” Hunter-Reay said to IMS Radio, describing what happened. “I started accelerating between 1 and 2. At first, I thought it was fuel, then liquid all over the side of me. It was cold. My brother-in-law did that back in the day. Then it all started filling with smoke. Plenty of fire assistance. It was definitely on fire.

“Anytime you have fuel inside the cockpit, you have no idea when it’s gonna light and get way worse. I’m hoping it was just the fire system working as it should.

“I don’t know what we do now. Jack already had a hybrid unit melt down on him.”

When the green flag drops on Sunday, Hunter-Reay will roll off from 25^th in his one-off start with DRR, as he looks to parlay some of his past experience into his 17^th start at Indianapolis to work his way forward from the back.

“It’s a long race really. Like kind of Colton said, you can’t really just focus on I have to get to the front now. It’s several cars at a time. Get some on the track. Get some in the pit lane. Work through it methodically that way,” said on Thursday of the game plan for Sunday.

“You know, I think just knowing when to take the lunge and when not to, I think maybe the experienced guys have an upper hand on that, with it being all about keeping the momentum up. It’s tough now, though, with the cars how they are and the current specs, everybody is very desperate for every pass. There’s a lot of blocking going on.

“It’s definitely a bit of a different approach than it’s been maybe, I don’t know, ten years ago, but we all adapt to that and drive accordingly.”