HUNTER-REAY, HARVEY SHOW STRONG LAPS IN RACE TRIM ON INDY 500 CARB DAY; UNFORTUNATELY, FIRE ON NO. 23 WEDBUSH CAUSES TEAM TO GO TO BACKUP CAR
Ryan Hunter-Reay
Hunter-Reay’s Mount Caught Fire Late in Practice, Crew is Preparing Backup Car for 500-Mile Race
By: Dreyer & Reinbold Racing (Photos Courtesy Dreyer & Reinbold Racing)
SPEEDWAY, IN (May 23, 2025) – The Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports team saw the gamut of emotions Friday in the annual Indy 500 Miller Lite Carb Day two-hour practice round, with driver Ryan Hunter-Reay and Jack Harvey posting solid speeds in the first hour of action at the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
However, Hunter-Reay’s No. 23 DRR/Cusick Motorsports WEDBUSH Chevrolet experienced a fire at 12:20 p.m. after a pit stop, and the Florida driver was forced to jump from his race car as the NTT IndyCar Safety team extinguished the flames on the rear of the machine.
The 2014 Indy 500 Champion was not injured in the fire, but the DRR/Cusick squad must now prepare a backup car for Hunter-Reay in Sunday’s 109th running of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” Hunter-Reay will start in his original starting position of 25th position on Sunday.
“Because of the fire, it did damage to the layers of the tub on Ryan’s car,” said team owner Dennis Reinbold. “We examined the carbon in the tub, and both Dallara and our crew felt it was best to go to our backup chassis. It’s the best move for us in the race. Actually, the backup chassis has been a very good race car for us over the past few years. So, we feel good about moving to this chassis. It’s tough for the team to prepare the backup car, but we will be ready for Sunday.”
Prior to the fire Friday, Hunter-Reay recorded the top speed of 223.525 miles per hour in the first 20 minutes of action, while Harvey drove his No. 24 DRR/Cusick Motorsports INVST Chevrolet to fourth best time at the 30-minute mark with a 223.515 m.p.h.
At the conclusion of the two-hour practice session, Hunter-Reay had completed 33 laps before the mishap and 11th fastest overall with Harvey recording 49 circuits and placed 12th overall.
“All in all, we had a good day on the track,” said Hunter-Reay. “It was productive, and we made some good changes with the race car. Then I left the pits, and we left some fire on the ground. All of a sudden in the acceleration lane, I had a bunch of fluid all over me and a lot of smoke. I did my best to get the car back to pit lane. We are still looking for answers of what the cause was. We are analyzing how much damage has been done right now. I jumped out of the car pretty quickly. We have to see what happened and the amount of damage. But I was pleased with the car on the track.”
“We had pretty much everything that we wanted to today,” Harvey said. We re-baselined the car after being rebuilt the last few days. I think we are in a good window with the race car. We tried one change, and it wasn’t as good. It was very unfortunate for Ryan and his guys on the No. 23 car. There will be a lot of hours now to rebuild that car for the race. It’s a tough one, and we will ask our No. 24 guys to help get that car ready for Sunday too. The wind was different today from Monday’s practice. The wind was quite strong and different from earlier in the week. I had a couple of moments in turn one with the wind. That is unusual since turn two is more affected by the wind normally. I am as confident as you can be going into the race with this car at IMS. The DRR/Cusick Motorsports team has put together a solid package for us on race car. We will see how the race develops if we need to make many changes as the race goes on. Right now, I like our setup.”
All on track activities are completed until Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 when the green flag drops at 12:45 p.m. EDT. Saturday’s events are set for the 33-driver Autograph session at 9 a.m., the public Drivers Meeting at 10:30 a.m. and the AES Indy 500 Parade at 12 p.m.
