By Dean Reller
Ryan Hunter-Reay pulled off the unbelievable as a late race move paid off as he won the Verizon IndyCar Series Iowa Corn Indy 300 at the Iowa Speedway. Pitting for 4 fresh tires allowed Hunter-Reay to pick through traffic in the last five laps, de-throwning what appeared to be a sure win for Tony Kanaan, who dominated much of the race. "What a crazy day," said Hunter-Reay. "We had troubles all night, on the track, on pit lane and couldn't get anything to go right. Then, Michael Andretti made a gutzy call to take tires." That call turned things around for Hunter-Reay who moved from tenth on the lap 291 restart and tore through the field. "When you do take tires, you might not have enough time." It was just enough as he took his second win in two years at the Iowa Speedway.
Josef Newgarden, who also pitted for tires late, following Hunter-Reay as he finished second. "There was no reason not to pit for tires," said Newgarden following the race. "I didn't know how effective they would be. It was almost easy." Kanaan was very disappointed after leading 247 of the race's 300 laps and defended his teams decision to stay on the track. "You can't compare 20 lap tires to new ones," said Kanaan. "You can't pit when leading the race. I think I did everything I could. I didn't leave anything on the table."
Scott Dixon ran up front with teammate Kanaan much of the race and was relegated to a fourth place finish. "Those sneaky little buggers", said Dixon in disbelief following the race. Ed Carpenter ran near the front most of the night and took home fifth.
Iowa Corn Indy 300
1. Ryan Hunter-Reay 2. Josef Newgarden 3.Tony Kanaan 4. Scott Dixon 5. Ed Carpenter 6. James Hinchcliffe 7. Grahm Rahal 8. Helio Castroneves 9. Ryan Brisco 10. Charlie Kimball 11. Simon Pagenaud 12. Carlos Munoz 13. Justin Wilson 14. Will Power 15. Jack Hawksworth 16. Juan Pablo Montoya 17. Sebastian Saavedra 18. Marco Andretti 19. Sebastian Bourdais 20. Carlos Huertas 21. Mikhail Aleshin 22. Takuma Sato
Margin of Victory: .5814 seconds
Time of the Race: 2 hours, 1 minute, 58.8160 seconds
6 Cautions for 68 laps
6 Lead changes among 4 drivers
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