Fort Lauderdale’s Ryan Hunter-Reay is making his 10th start in the Indy 500, and it never gets old.
“The lead up to it, the hype, the tradition, the history involved there- it is like nothing else in sports,” Hunter-Reay said. “It’s unreal.”
Hunter-Reay can enjoy Indianapolis Motor Speedway on a higher level than most.
He was already an IndyCar series champ when he arrived on race day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2014.
But his life completely changed when Ryan won he left that day with his first Indy 500 win.
“I always called it the gift that keeps on giving,” Hunter-Reay said. “It’s just everything that comes with it. It opened up many doors for me.”
There was a time when the thought of drinking the victory milk at “The Brickyard” seemed like a long shot for Ryan.
He enrolled as an engineering student at UCF when he wasn’t getting the funding he thought was enough to make him a star in the sport.
But he never let go of that dream.
And here he is: one of the best in IndyCar racing back looking for a second Indy 500 championship.
“It ended up working out, and I couldn’t be more thankful,” Hunter-Reay said. “It’s getting to do what I love for a living. And I feel extremely to be in that position.”
Hunter-Reay feels good about his car and his chances after an excellent run on the track Sunday during qualifying.
After a poor run on Saturday left him out of the Fast Nine Shootout that determined the top spots in the field, Hunter-Reay's car was outstanding on Sunday at 231.442 miles per hour, which would have been good enough to qualify fourth.
“It’s so sensitive to the changes that we’re making on the car,” Hunter-Reay said. “You could have a great race car one day, and then all of the sudden the wind changes direction by a couple of miles per hour and a few degrees. And the car’s completely different. That’s how finicky that place is.”
He calls the race a great American tradition… and takes pride in being the only American to win the Indy 500 since 2006 in a sport packed with international superstars.
“It’s the best drivers from around the world,” Hunter-Reay said. “And to fly that American flag and especially hold it up high after winning the race and to hear the cheers from the crowd, that was a very special feeling for me.”
A solid 4th place finish at St. Pete gave Ryan some momentum to start this season.
A win on Sunday would give it an early exclamation point.
“If you have a good race car, it doesn’t matter where you start, really,” Hunter-Reay said. “We started from 19th in 2014 and ended up leading the race by halfway.”
That ended in his first Indy 500 win.
We'll see if another is waiting with the milk on Sunday.