At the age of 32, Ryan Hunter-Reay is in the prime of his racing career. After bouncing around a few teams during the start of his career in CART and IndyCar, he’s found a home at Andretti Autosport and rewarded himself and the team with a driver’s championship this past season.

It’s been a long struggle for the American-driver now residing in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, but when asked how defending IndyCar Series driver’s championship sounds to him, Hunter-Reay smiles accordingly and says “it sounds awesome.”

“That’s what I’ve been working for my entire career (which feels like my entire life), but it also comes with a certain pressure as well,” said the defending champ. “It’s a good pressure – one you can feed off of. You raise the bar and have to keep that #1 on the car, which provides a constant reminder.”

Winning the driver’s championship has brought a lot of added exposure for himself, the team and the sponsors. And Hunter-Reay has backed up his great performance last year with two more victories and a total of six podium finishes, landing him in second position in the driver’s championship behind the cagey-veteran Helio Castroneves from Team Penske.

In 2013, it’s not just Hunter-Reay that has seen his share of success – the whole Andretti Autosport team has captivated IndyCar placing themselves in the elite class of teams along with Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing. Teammates James Hinchcliffe and Marco Andretti has seen their fair share of success with Hinchcliffe winning the most races of any driver this year with three and Andretti sitting in third place in the driver’s championship with nine Top-10 finishes so far. Not only has Andretti Autosport finally bridged the gap between Penske, Ganassi and the rest, they might have surpassed those teams this year. 

Hunter-Reay attributes the success to the team owner Michael Andretti and the team engineers, but also feels the driver chemistry has a lot to do with it. “The team dynamic is better than I could have expected and the guys will tell you the same thing,” said Hunter-Reay. “Everyone’s been on the same page and there are no egos standing in the way. It’s an open book between the drivers and we really see each other as teammates.”

The Honda Indy Toronto particularly excites Hunter-Reay on a professional and personal level. With the race being the second of three doubleheaders on the IndyCar calendar, he knows he can leapfrog Castroneves for first in the driver’s championship with the amount of points up for grab.

On a personal level, the Honda Indy Toronto is a homecoming of sorts. His late mother Lydia was from Hamilton, Ontario and over the years he has spent a lot of time in Canada, so it’s always one of the races he circles on the calendar.

He hasn’t performed too shabby either with two third place finishes in 2010 and 2011 and his first Toronto victory last season rounding out a stretch of wins that eventually led to winning the championship. 

Even before his IndyCar days, Toronto has always been a special place for Hunter-Reay. His success started back in 2001 during his days in the Barber Dodge Pro Series. Hunter-Reay reminisced over his breakthrough in Toronto that got him recognized and helped advance his career into the Toyota Atlantic Championship. 

Anything can happen in Toronto and Hunter-Reay expects a test of endurance. “It’s challenging, bumpy and the track throws you for a loop. It promotes close wheel-to-wheel racing and even some contact at times.”

What makes the first of the two Toronto races interesting is the standing start grid formation that has just been implemented a few days ago. IndyCar has long had a rolling start structure, but this should add an exciting wrinkle to the doubleheader. 

Hunter-Reay doesn’t have much experience with the standing start format, but feels that all the drivers are in the same boat. He’s looking forward to the challenge of trying to control 700 horsepower on cold Firestone tires, but definitely doesn’t want to be the one that stalls. He’s going to take a conservative approach on the start and see what happens – at least that’s what he tells me. 

Catch Hunter-Reay and the rest of the field starting this afternoon. Qualifying begins at 2:15 ET and the start of the first race will be at 3:40 ET on Saturday featuring the new standing start. The Honda Indy Toronto concludes on Sunday with the second race and its typical rolling start at 3:40 ET.