RHR’s Team Wins Firestone Pit Stop Award at GP of Indy

Ryan Hunter-Reay’s DHL Andretti Autosport Team has won the Firestone Pit Stop Performance Award at the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis. The achievement marks the first time this season that neither a Ganassi or Penske team has won the award.

The $10,000 award will be presented to the recent Indy 500 champion before the Saturday race in Detroit. There will not be a winner awarded from the Indianapolis 500, but there will be two winners from this coming weekend in Detroit. The award will drop from it’s standard $10,000 prize to $5,000 per winner at double headers.

The first thing I noticed when adding RHR’s win to the table was the winning teams starting positions and how every single team finished in a higher place from which they started. The average finishing position also increased this week to an even P3. The sample size remains low, but patterns are beginning to form. Although it is to early to determine how the winners of this award will ultimately end up in the championship race, it does appear to correlate on how well the winning team does in the given race. I look forward to continually analyzing this data and hopefully come up with some sound numbers by the end of the season.

(5/28/14) – Parker Hall