Ryan Hunter-Reay has been coaching football, living like 'carnies,' nearly subbing for Palou
Ryan Hunter-Reay had known the end was coming for two years, after he and Andretti Autosport agreed in late-2019 that his last year with the team would be 2021. While largely keeping that secret safe from the public, the 2012 IndyCar champion lived out what very well may be his final two full-time seasons relatively quietly.
The veteran Andretti Autosport driver logged more finishes outside the top-15 (11) than inside the top-10 (10), finished outside the top-20 (6) more often than inside the top-5 (5) and logged just one podium finish across his final 34 races.
And yet, it was nothing compared to his year spent largely away from racing, where he coached elementary-age football, served as an advisor for Juncos Hollinger Racing, “drank from a fire hose” learning how to race in SRX and spent months, essentially, on stand-by for Chip Ganassi Racing’s IndyCar program as its behind-the-scenes contractual squabbles with Alex Palou turned into a very public federal court case.
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“Man, that was an emotional roller coaster, being the reserve driver for the No. 10 car every week. I was ready, but I didn’t ever know if I was going, so I had to keep myself mentally and physically fit with the unknowns of, ‘Where is this thing going?’” Hunter-Reay told IndyStar last weekend at Long Beach. “It was one surprise after another. It was like you were waiting every day for some news to break.
“It didn’t matter if it was 10 p.m. at night or if I was with my family somewhere on vacation. I had to be ready to jump into a plane.”
It was the final major stage of his racing-related calendar in 2022 that was bookended with a pair of IMSA endurance races with Ganassi at Sebring (7th) and Petit Le Mans (5th), a program he says he lost his spot in for 2023 as most of the prototype manufacturers promoted from within their programs. Ganassi, too, slimmed down from two entries in the U.S.-based series to one, with that endurance driver spot understandably going to Scott Dixon.
Hunter-Reay says he’d love to get into sportscar racing full-time – even a GT program, if it made sense – in order to fill his calendar with weekends at the racetrack. He also says he’d consider a return to full-time IndyCar racing, noting that there’s “very few scenarios where I’d do that again but absolutely I would if it was the right one.”
Being selective is what kept Hunter-Reay on the sidelines, IndyCar-wise, last year, with the 42-year-old saying there were “certain scenarios” he had on the table or were lined up, pending funding or other circumstances, “but they didn’t work out. It’s got to be with the right people,” he said. “I’ve been doing that grind for 20 years, and it was nice to do some new stuff.”
Hunter-Reay said Ricardo Juncos, who he knew casually, spoke at several races in 2021 about a variety of roles – including Hunter-Reay driving for the team that jumped back into full-time competition in 2022. Instead, they landed on what Hunter-Reay deemed an “advisor” role focused on the Month of May for then-rookie Callum Ilott.
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“I really had seen things from one angle at Andretti Autosport and I got to see things from a different perspective from a team that was somewhat new to the process,” he said. “I got to jump into the conversation and say how I thought some things should go and how I thought they should be differently from my time at Andretti.
“I’d wanted to remove myself for a moment, rather than to jump back into starting (another IndyCar driving career) and be very sure about what I was doing, where I was going and who I was with. This sport is all about people, and I wanted to make sure I was with the right people.”
After that year spent in a different role, Hunter-Reay says he believes he’s found “his people” at Dreyer and Reinbold Racing, who he’ll get on-track with for the first time during Thursday’s Indy 500 open test at IMS.
“I’ve been with a powerhouse team for many years, and we’ve showed up with a rocket ship on Day 1, and I’ve showed up with that same team and struggled through the month. I’ve watched last year’s 500 probably five or six times, just trying to look over the smaller details of the race, and I found that it was pretty interesting to see some of the Penske and Andretti cars in the 20s or the upper-teens, while Dreyer and Reinbold was (between 10th and 15th) for much of the race.
“That just goes to show you that if you prepare right and have the right situation and the right people, you can show up and succeed in the David vs. Goliath situation. At Indy, if you’re on either side of a mile-per-hour, you could be in the game or out of it.”
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Hunter-Reay believes he still has several more years of Indy 500 one-offs in him but says he’s taking his racing career one year at a time. Being out of the full-time racing game has allowed him to experience things he never could have dreamed of for the last couple decades, like spending six months on the road with his family in an RV – and a puppy, for good measure – bopping around to each stop on the SRX schedule “like a bunch of carnies going from circus to circus.”
Last fall, the ex-high school football quarterback went undefeated while coaching his sons, but now with them all in separate age groups, he’s faced with the decision of whose team to coach this fall. Hunter-Reay is also staring down the decision of whose karting career to support while he helps all three dip their toes in for the time being.
“We’re just practicing as a family. I haven’t gotten them into the competitive aspect of it yet,” he said. “It’s so prohibitively expensive, and with three boys, I’ve got to narrow down who’s really, really hungry for it and go at it locally with one of them.”
And when it comes to the lead driver of the house, he’s glad his own renewed hunger helped bring him back to IMS once more back inside the cockpit.
“I can’t wait. It doesn’t feel like it’s been that long,” he said. “But at the same time, I’m really itching to get back at it.”
Details for this week's Indy 500 open test at IMS
At the moment, IndyCar is scheduled to hold its annual Indianapolis 500 open test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Thursday and Friday. Due to likely inclement weather Friday, Thursday's schedule has been updated to allow for a more extensive running schedule. Thursday's most up-to-date schedule is as follows:
10 a.m.-noon: Veterans may run (meaning all the drivers part of full-time programs who aren't rookies, plus Takuma Sato and Ed Carpenter)
Noon-2 p.m.: Rookies must complete their three-stage rookie orientation programs (including Sting Ray Robb, Agustin Canapino and Benjamin Pedersen); drivers who didn't run the last oval of the calendar (Texas) must complete a refresher test that involves the final two stages of the rookie program (including Marco Andretti, Stefan Wilson, Katherine Legge, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Tony Kanaan)
2-6:30 p.m.: All cars may run
On Friday, all cars are scheduled to be allowed to run from 10 a.m.-4 p.m., but early morning and midday thunderstorms are likely to alter that.
The Turn 2 viewing mounds will be open to the public, and the test will be streamed live with wall-to-wall coverage on Peacock.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indy 500: Ryan Hunter-Reay on coaching football, nearly subbing for Palou
