Ryan Hunter-Reay has been caught in a media whirlwind since winning the Indianapolis 500, naturally enough, and in between times he’s endured a horrible weekend in Detroit. But he’s also one of the drivers most likely to win at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend, and could even regain P1 in the championship standings. Last year, he finished second and this year he’s expecting the increase in downforce to make the show more of a thrill-ride for the fans.

RACER: In 2012 at Texas Motor Speedway, the cars were stripped of downforce and most of us said it was a great race. In 2013, IndyCar took even more away and many fans and some drivers complained bitterly that “the show” had been ruined. What’s the 2014 situation?

Ryan Hunter-Reay: That’s a good question. I was one of the ones who didn’t do the Texas test, but I did think last year was very tricky even on new tires, and it was overly difficult at the end of a stint. I mean, I enjoyed it but for the show, it was a little too stretched out. This year, they appear to have added back quite a lot more downforce, so the cars should be closer but shouldn’t be a pack race by any means.

What was the difference in tire degradation between 2012 and 2013 and is that a crucial element of making this a good race?

Well, that was the interesting thing; last year Firestone gave us a more durable tire, but the downforce levels were different so the tires were degrading a lot as we were sliding – it wasn’t really a direct comparison. I’d say last year’s downforce/grip ratio was close to right, but with a bit more downforce, the tires won’t go off so much but probably enough to be a factor in the finishing order. It won’t be a situation of getting just five or six good laps and then the tires go away. It will be from the middle of a stint to the end where the drivers who look after their tires will be able to make progress.

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In those circumstances, how hard is it to gauge how hard you can push to either catch the guy in front or gap the guy behind? How can you conserve tires so you’re strong at the end of a stint?

Yeah, it is very difficult on an oval to gauge that; it’s a much finer feeling as to when the tires are starting to go away, compared with a road or street course. And obviously it’s done at 215mph at Texas, so you want the signals to be accurate! But at the same time, you can’t let off too much, because you can be sure that someone else will risk hurting their tires just that little bit more – maybe gambling on a yellow – and will outpace you. So it’s always a fine line: Am I pushing too hard compared with everyone else, or not pushing enough? You never know if someone else has got all the same issues as you until they’re in your face or in your mirror.

What I will say is that as competitive as this series is at the moment, I think the word “conserving” needs an asterisk beside it: it’s more like “not punishing your tires as much as the next guy.” It depends on balance, it does depend on how you drive the racecar. And…I admit, I have a hard time thinking about letting up, because if you do that, the guy behind you will catch up.

Because of the banking at Texas, is there more or less adjusting of your in-cockpit tools than at a flat superspeedway like Indianapolis?

I think it’s very similar. Indy obviously becomes a “handling” racetrack, especially when you’re in a lot of traffic, and when you get a wind direction change, obviously you have to stay on top of it with the weight jacker and rollbars and so on. Well, Texas is the same now that we have less downforce: it’s quite open so the wind direction shifts do affect the handling of your car – one side of the track can be entirely different to the other side. You still have to adjust according to your car’s balance, the track temperature, the life in your tires and the wind direction.

That’s quite surprising; I’d have thought 24 degrees of banking would help mask a car’s handling deficiencies, just through…well, gravity/centrifugal force!

And in the old IRL car, that’s how it was! But with the current downforce/tire spec and the nature of the track surface itself, it feels and races more like a shorter, flatter oval, but done at 215mph. It is a complete contrast to how it used to be – white line, white-knuckle pack racing. Now, it’s properly a handling racetrack.

Does that mean it’s also like Indy in that you don’t want to follow a car directly; you need to duck down or move up half a lane to get clean air going over at least half your car?

Right. You definitely need to have clean air. And you won’t get two- or three-wide with cars running two- or three-wide behind you, because there wouldn’t be enough downforce. You have to find yourself some clean air to get some downforce on your front and rear wings.

Qualifying-wise, then, are you using all the track now, rather than just hugging the line at the bottom?

The track distance debate has been going on forever regarding oval qualifying and none of us is entirely sure what’s the best way to go. I’ve tried endlessly to minimize track distance and then seen someone go out and eat up the entire racetrack, adding 200ft longer to their lap distance by diving down to the apex and then drifting up to the wall on the exit of the turns, and outqualify me by 1.5mph. And the reason it’s still a bit of a mystery is that you don’t always get an opportunity to run solo, even if you try; someone can just emerge from the pits and end up giving you help, so you don’t really know what you’ve got until qualifying. I think if you’ve got a fast car, you’ll qualify up front, and I don’t really see that it’s distance that makes a difference.

How do you feel Honda will measure up to Chevrolet on a track when it’s all about top-end power? At Indy, it looked fairly even except during Fast Friday/Qualifying/Pole Day when Chevy appeared to have the edge on those increased boost ratings.

Well, Indy is all we’ve got as a proper comparison. In practice, Honda matched the Chevy; like you say, the Chevy had the edge in qualifying; and then on race day you had a Honda versus a Chevy battling it out for the win. Very evenly matched, and so it’s anybody’s guess who has the edge. I think Honda have done a great job in their first year of running twin turbos and for me, it’s been reliable too.