Ed Carpenter Racing’s Ryan Hunter-Reay says that he is looking forward to working with Rinus VeeKay starting this weekend at Road America after replacing Conor Daly in the No.20 BtNile Chevrolet for the rest of the 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season.
Speaking to Paddock Eye on Tuesday ahead of the Sonsio Grand Prix of Road America, Hunter-Reay said that VeeKay is fast and an exciting driver, and he hopes that together they can move ECR forward to where they should be. Hunter Reay has been working as a consultant with Juncos Hollinger Racing and feels he learned a lot with the team he can bring to Ed Carpenter Racing. RHR went on to say that there is the challenge of getting the fundamental things right such as the size of the steering wheel and he said it would have been nice to have a test but he feels that naturally, they find things that will work for each other.
Hunter-Reay said that it has been great this season as he has been able to work with three teams. Hunter-Reay told us:
Yeah, I mean, I really look forward to working with Juncos Hollinger Racing and with Callum. I wasn’t necessarily a driver coach. I was more a consultant to the entire race team.
I’ve had the opportunity to work with three different race teams within a calendar year. What that gives me is a broadened sense of — like I keep saying approach, but each team approaches how they go about a race weekend completely differently. You would think it’s pretty straightforward, you put the wheels on the car, you go out on track, you test, all this stuff, and it’s not. Each team does things very differently.
So I’ve had the opportunity to see numerous strategies when it comes to their implementation of a strategy of a race weekend. Not just a race strategy and when you pit and all that.
Yeah, that’s been — I’ve enjoyed it. I’ve got to view it from, so to speak, 30,000 feet and see how these things operate, what are the positives, negatives, and hope I can apply that to the situation
Speaking to Paddock Eye about his new teammate Rinus VeeKay commented saying:
Yeah, Rinus is a great talent. Obviously he’s just got such a natural ability, and he’s always smiling, always positive. So yeah, definitely look forward to working with him, and hopefully that will be a good relationship moving forward that we can push the team along further in the right direction.
Hunter-Reay who will drive the No.20 BitNile Chevrolet says that he will take his return to full-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES competition one race at a time.