Marco Andretti leads Andretti Autosport in Iowa qualifying

Marco Andretti

Photo by: Adriano Manocchia

Marco Andretti, Team RC Cola Chevrolet, No. 26

Marco Andretti started first and finished third in today's final qualifying heat race. He was the quickest in each of the two practice sessions today and will start Saturday night's race from the third position. Andretti won the Iowa Corn Indy 250 last year after starting 17th.

"We really wanted to get the pole, but we were a little off on our gearing for the car. We can work on that for tomorrow - that's really the race that counts. We were pretty good, but we need to give ourselves a little more grip and we can be right there. The RC Cola car was fast all day, so we just need to tune on it a little bit to get back out front when it really means something. We can win it from there."

James Hinchcliffe, Team GoDaddy.com Chevrolet, No. 27

Hinchcliffe gained two spots during the top-eight heat race and will start tomorrow's race from the fourth position.

"I think we learned a little bit tonight. I'm actually glad, almost, that we had heat races this weekend because, with so little practice we had so little time to work on our race cars and (the heat races) gave us a good taste of what we are going to see tomorrow night. Obviously, the track conditions will be a bit different, but we learned a bit. It was nice to move the Go Daddy car up a couple of spots because it was tough to pass out there. Ryan (Briscoe) got a bunch of different runs on me, but it's so tough to hold the bottom of the racetrack and our car was working pretty decent up high. We were struggling off of Turn 2 and he was getting some good runs on us. That last lap I started really pushing up the track and my spotter told me Ryan was going high - I had to really try and get out of it; I feel bit bad there so, sorry to him for that. But overall, not a bad night and I'm happy to be starting on the outside of Row Two."

Ryan Hunter-Reay, Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda Chevrolet, No. 28

Hunter-Reay will start tomorrow's race from the seventh position, after starting seventh in third heat race.

"I think we had a pretty good day. We checked our first box off the list, which was making the fast-eight heat race. We treated the heat as a test session instead of an actual race. We found some things that might work for tomorrow night and we definitely found some things that didn't. We didn't race very impressive, but we kept our starting position of seventh. The Andretti Autosport crew was able to learn some things, which is good. We could have been more aggressive, but we felt like the big picture was to learn more for tomorrow night and that's what we did. Thanks to all of my guys for their hard work and also to DHL and Sun Drop."

Source: Andretti Autosport