{"id":1755,"date":"2017-07-10T12:57:43","date_gmt":"2017-07-10T16:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=1755"},"modified":"2017-07-10T12:57:43","modified_gmt":"2017-07-10T16:57:43","slug":"1755","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2017\/07\/10\/1755\/","title":{"rendered":"Esteban Gutierrez 13th in first Oval Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Formula 1<\/strong> and Formula E<\/strong> driver Esteban Gutierrez<\/strong> brought home an impressive 13th<\/sup> place finish at the Iowa Corn 300<\/strong> on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Usually, P13 isn\u2019t the most impressive finish to achieve, but Gutierrez was racing on an oval for the first time in his motorsport career.<\/p>\n

Esteban Gutierrez 13th<\/sup> in first Oval Race<\/strong><\/h2>\n

On June 1, it was announced that Gutierrez would be taking over the Dale Coyne Racing<\/strong> No. 18 Verizon IndyCar Series<\/strong> ride for an injured Sebastien Bourdais<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Since taking over, results haven\u2019t been the best, but Gutierrez is making progress.<\/p>\n

The Monterrey, Mexico native\u2019s finish at Iowa was the best in his career so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing the first time [at an oval] I didn\u2019t know what to expect,\u201d Gutierrez said. \u201cDuring the beginning of the race I struggled a little bit. After a few laps, I got more and more comfortable at using the tools in the car in traffic, which was the most tricky part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gutierrez was quick through the middle of the race, running in the back half of the top ten, before late race pit stops shuffled him back to P13.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not quick enough in the first quarter,\u201d Gutierrez said. \u201cIt took me a few laps to get comfortable. I started to make progress and it got better and better every time I went out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gutierrez also said after the race he really enjoyed racing on the oval.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like [oval racing] is about the little things,\u201d He said. \u201cIt\u2019s about precision. The mind plays a big role. It\u2019s nice to have that in a race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although, Gutierrez tested at Lucas Oil Raceway<\/strong> in Indianapolis before coming to Iowa, Sunday was the first time he had raced against others on an oval.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also want to thank all of my competitors,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was fair racing, good racing, and I really enjoyed it today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gutierrez said his goal is to be more and more competitive each race, and he has done that so far. He added that that isn\u2019t something that some can do while racing Formula 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes in Formula 1, you have a car that will finish 15th<\/sup>, 10th<\/sup> at maximum,\u201d he said. \u201cIn IndyCar if you get lucky you might finish up front.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gutierrez will try to finish up front again on Sunday when the series goes to Toronto.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndycar is great,\u201d Gutierrez said. \u201cThere are some very competitive drivers. It makes it more fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Formula 1 and Formula E driver Esteban Gutierrez brought home an impressive 13th place finish at the Iowa Corn 300 on Sunday. Usually, P13 isn\u2019t the most impressive finish to achieve, but Gutierrez was racing on an oval for the first time in his motorsport career. Esteban Gutierrez 13th in first Oval Race On […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":315,"featured_media":1758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[596,227,163],"class_list":["post-1755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indycar","tag-dale-coyne-racing","tag-esteban-gutierrez","tag-indycar"],"modified_by":"Chris Soulsby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/315"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}