Andretti Autosport hits the streets of Houston for Race 2
"I'm happy to be back on the podium"
James Hinchcliffe, Andretti Autosport Chevrolet
Chris Owens
James Hinchcliffe, No. 27 GoDaddy Chevrolet Starting from the eighth position, GoDaddy driver James Hinchcliffe battled his way to the front of the pack and remained there for the 90-lap race. The Toronto native arrived at the twin checkers in the third position to secure his fourth podium of the 2013 season. "First and foremost I hope everybody is ok; that obviously looked really bad and nothing else matters, I just want everyone to walk out of here fine. From our point of view, I'm happy to be back on the podium. It has been a rough stretch for us since Iowa and it's nice to have a good drive rewarded especially after what happened yesterday. ig thanks to the Andretti Autosport guys for their hard work. It's cool to get the GoDaddy PINK car on the podium too, the one-off deal with the National Breast Cancer Foundation and it's a great cause. Huge thanks to all the fans for coming out and staying out. You know all the problems we had on Friday, the weather we had this morning in Houston and how hot it was yesterday - you guys are the stars of this show and congrats to Will (Power) and Scott (Dixon)."
E.J. Viso, No. 5 Team Venezuela PDVSA CITGO Chevrolet For the majority of Race Two in Houston, E.J. Viso remained in the top 10 running as high as sixth place. The Venezuelan was unfortunately collected on the last lap incident between Dario Franchitti and Takuma Sato and was shown finishing the race in P16; this was Viso's 100th start. "Well, what can I say? Extremely disappointing race. We were making our way to the front and earning every single spot on the track when we started 12th and running sixth with a big possibility to get fifth. I had a couple more laps of fuel than (Sebastien) Bourdais, and I was pretty confident that I would be able to pass him. In the last pit stop we had a big problem in the pits and that ended up ruining our race. We lost six positions there and pretty much needed to stay there until the end of the race. After I got the white flag there was an accident in front of me that I couldn't avoid; it was Dario (Franchitti) and Takuma (Sato), and there was nothing I could do, so unfortunately we ended up being involved in that incident, too."
Marco Andretti, No. 25 RC Cola Chevrolet Marco Andretti started today's race around Houston's Reliant Stadium from the fourth position. With only 14 laps to go in the 90-lap Grand Prix of Houston, the third generation driver suffered his second rear wing incident - dropping him to the 20th position. The Pennsylvania native now sits fifth in the championship points fight heading into the final race of the 2013 season at Auto Club Speedway; Andretti came to the twin checkers in eighth place in last year's season finale in Fontana, Calif. "Today was just a bad day; we could have salvaged something out of nothing there in the end. It's a shame that it happened the way it did. It cost us nine championship points for no reason. I'm a little disappointed because at this stage in the game we could have finished top 12. That would have been a win for me, but I'm just really disappointed."
Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 1 DHL Chevrolet Marking his 150th start during today's penultimate race of the season, Ryan Hunter-Reay was seen as high as third place before experiencing a gearbox issue forcing the reigning series champion to pit. After remaining in the pits to receive a fix for five laps, the Florida resident continued and came home with a 21st-place finish. "I think we had another podium going today. We were running third and then the gearbox broke - it's another DNF for the DHL Chevy. We have just had horrible luck this year and I guess we just have to look at it as unfortunately circumstances and bad luck. It is what it is; I just hope Dario Franchitti is ok."
Andretti Autosport
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