Andretti Autosport ready for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama

The Verizon IndyCar Series returned to Barber Motorsports Park today for Round Four of competition at the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. With two practice sessions and qualifying, the day ended with series veteran Marco Andretti leading the way for Andretti Autosport. He’ll start 13th tomorrow after missing qualifying round advancement by a mere one-tenth of a second. 

“We’re just struggling right now with understeer, but we had to sort of back off and gap,” Andretti stated. “We only had one timed lap on the new tires, so the tires weren’t completely in on that lap because I couldn’t push on the out lap. I think that’s what cost us the one-tenth (of a second) we missed (advancing to the top 12) by. We’re all trying to find the sweet spot, and I don’t think we have yet. We always have decent race cars here, but we have to see… we’ve been on new  tires all day today so we have to see where the degradation goes.”

Following Andretti on the grid will be reigning two-time Barber race winner Ryan Hunter-Reay in 18th.

“We just caught slower traffic there, I gave (Francesco Dracone) a huge gap to begin with knowing he was off pace, and I just caught him over and over again every lap,” Hunter-Reay added. “It’s our own fault for putting ourselves out there in that position though… We’re all I the same boat, we’re all trying really hard to make it better. I love this racetrack and it’s a shame we’re not getting around here quicker right now. But we’ll be working hard at it, that’s for sure.”

Colombian Carlos Muñoz will take the grid from the 22nd position.

“For sure it’s been a disappointing day,” commented Cruz. “Unfortunately, we were not really competitive in any of the sessions. It’s really strange, because as a team, previously we’ve been really quick at this track… we just don’t have the balance right. For tomorrow’s race we’ll see what happens. We’re going to be really risky with our strategy, so we’ll see how it goes.”

Live race coverage from the scenic 2.3-mile road course will begin at 3 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network. If you can’t make it to the television, listen along with the broadcast by the IMS Radio Network, on SiriusXM (XM Ch. 209, Sirius Ch. 213) and IndyCar.com.

Adam Sinclair