INDYCAR: Hunter-Reay's opportunity missed

Ryan Hunter-Reay believes his Honda engine glitch during IndyCar's Pocono 500 was a "huge opportunity missed."

Hunter-Reay started from the rear of the grid in a spare car following a practice crash, but made rapid progress in the race, which was postponed to Monday due to rain. He led by lap 49 and stayed in the lead pack until an engine problem sent his Honda unit through a power cycle, costing the Andretti Autosport driver a lap.

A caution and wave-around put the defending Pocono winner back on the lead lap, and Hunter-Reay ultimately charged back to third.

"I can't help but feel like that [we] should have been in Victory Lane today," Hunter-Reay said. "There's very few times in your career when you get a car that you're completely in line with and it's doing everything that you need it to. That's what I had today. It was like my 2014 Indy 500 car.

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"I'm not going to sit here and say we would have won, because that's not fair to anybody. We needed to be there in the fight to really prove that. But the car shut off while we were leading. We drove through the field twice. It was a good day on that side of it. But a huge opportunity missed. I really wanted to win.

"After this whole season, there hasn't been one year where I had a full-time drive that I haven't won a race. Today was a good opportunity, for sure. I just have to smile and move on."

Hunter-Reay was nearly collected by Mikhail Aleshin when his car slowed, and he ultimately got it going again in pitlane.

"I wish it gave me some warning, trust me," Hunter-Reay said to Aleshin post-race.

"Finally when I was in pitlane, almost stopped, I thought, 'All right, let me clutch it one more time and try it.' I cycled it again real quick almost to a stop, it fired."

Pocono adds to a frustrating campaign for Hunter-Reay, who is 11th in the IndyCar standings dominated by Chevrolet drivers.

"Mid-Ohio, running third, having the fuel issue where the fuel rig had a problem, we gave that one away," Hunter-Reay explained. "Indy, running up front, then getting taken out in pitlane. There's been a lot of frustration building. So when this one happened, it was almost just like I was drained. What else? What else can we do? But I didn't think it was going to be possible to come through at the end because I thought everybody made their cars pretty good."

Originally on Autosport.com