Another new face in victory lane

A long time ago, 4 years ago to be exact, in another open-wheel series, Champ Car, Ryan Hunter-Reay won a race in Milwauke, but carrer went into a bit of a tail spin soon enough he found himself out of a ride, only doing part time work in the Grand-Am series. That was until late last year when he got a call from Bobby Rahal asking him to drive his car and in six races he scored three top 10s and took rookie of the year honors, but the was because he was really the only rookie around.
2008 for Hunter-Reay showed moments of greatness and moments of frustartion. But on Sunday things went all the way to the good as Hunter-Reay took his first Indycar victory at Watkins Glen.

"For something to finally go our way is great," Hunter-Reay said. "It didn't land in our lap; we had to go out there and earn it. Then we just checked out at the end, which was the best. We put an exclamation on the end of that one. It was a beautiful deal."

While Hunter-Reay got the victory, the race was dominated by the strong cars of Scott Dixon and Ryan Briscoe, but the two tangled during second to last caution, when Dixon accidently spun himself out leaving Briscoe nowhere to go, but to collide with him, that left them both out of contention.

"It was like a scene out of Days of Thunder," Hunter-Reay said about the collision. "I couldn't see where they were or where the opening was. I couldn't see any cars, just a dirt cloud. I picked left, and luckily it was open. I got through there, and then I immediately thought, 'This is the point where I get paid back for all the bad luck.'"

The incident moved Hunter-Reay up to 2nd behind Darren Manning and Hunter-Reay quickly dispatched Manning for the lead and held on to the take the victory.

The victory would also be the first for the Rahal-Letterman team since 2004 when Buddy Rice took victory at Michigan for the team. "This is vindication," team co-owner Bobby Rahal said. "Some guys who have driven for us in the past said this team doesn't have the will to win. It's all about having the right driver."

Manning held off Tony Kannan, who was driving with a hurt wrist, to take second. Buddy Rice and Marco Andretti rounded out the top five.

Meanwhile, Scott Dixon, despite all of the late race silliness, was still able to extend his points lead on Helio Castroneves to 48. The next round of the Indycar Series will be held at Nashville Speedway on Saturday night.

Hunter-Reay scores maiden victory [Autosport.com]