Ryan Hunter-Reay said he would be happy if his first IndyCar Series race ended with a “top 6 or 7” finish and he got his wish. He finished seventh, overcoming some mechanical problems in practice.

“It felt great. The first time out in these cars with no testing and to finish in the top seven feels like a win for me,” said Hunter-Reay. “We had a couple of fluky things happen in practice and the Ethanol team showed amazing tenacity, we kept after it, we didn’t do anything cute, we had good pace and ran well. It was a satisfying day for us.”

The driver who replaced Jeff Simmons in Rahal Letterman Racing’s No. 17 car slid off the track during practice with a stuck throttle, damaging the left front suspension and wing package. It was repaired in time to start in the 10th spot.

The next race is August 5 at Michigan International Speedway.