Hunter-Reay Repeats at Milwaukee

rhrTomorrow will be Ryan Hunter-Reay’s first Father’s Day as a father. Today, he celebrated in victory lane with his son.

Hunter-Reay became only the second driver this year (James Hinchcliffe) to win multiple races. His win today is his second of the season, and his second straight at Milwaukee. When he won here last season, he went on to win the following two races. Ryan dominated the final 60 laps of the race, after his teammate Marco Andretti dominated the first 60 laps of the race.

After dominating both practice sessions and winning the Pole on Friday, it looked like Marco was going to give his dad a tremendous Father’s Day gift a day early. He had an electrical issue that essentially ended his day. He dropped from second to third in the championship standings after finishing 20th. With the win, Ryan moved up into second place, just 16 points behind Helio Castroneves, as he continues to try to defend his Championship.

Castroneves had a fantastic day, finishing second afters starting in 17th position. His Penske teammate Will Power finished third, which was his first podium finish of the season. EJ Viso and James Hinchcliffe rounded out the top five on Saturday. Scott Dixon finished 6th and Dario Franchitti came home in 8th after starting on the last row. Seven of the top eight finishers were from the Andretti, Penske, and Ganassi teams. That is usually considered a “normal weekend”, but not the way this season has gone.

The one driver who finished in the top eight that wasn’t a part of those three teams, was Takuma Sato. He led 109 laps on Saturday, but the handling on the car got away from him late in the race when his tires began to fade. Hunter-Reay is the first driver to win back-to-back races at Milwaukee since Tony Kanaan did it in 2006 and 2007, when he drove for Michael Andretti’s team.

We have now completed 9 of the 19 events scheduled for 2013. The next race on the 2013 IZOD IndyCar schedule is the Iowa Corn Indy 250 at Iowa Speedway on June 23. The race is set for 2:30 PM ET and will air live on ABC.

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