Ryan Hunter-Reay initially qualified his No. 28 Honda in fourth. That came after the Andretti Autosport driver crashed out early on in the lone practice session of the day hours earlier. Then, his ECU unit failed him and caused him to move from the grid to his pit box just prior to the start of Saturday night’s season opener.

He wasn’t alone either.

His teammate Alexander Rossi and fellow Honda driver Graham Rahal all experienced the same thing. They’d luckily get it fired up, but he had to pit for an unapproved adjustment just after we got started. It cost him two laps in the process.

When it was all said and done, there Hunter-Reay was in eighth for his third straight top 10 finish at Texas.

“Incredibly unfortunate events got us at the start of the race,” said Hunter-Reay. “The team did a great job and turned the car around for qualifying. I got in it and drove the wheels off it — up to P4 in qualifying. It ended up being a track position race, which would’ve really benefited us.

“And unfortunately, we had an issue with the electronics starting up and had to make a change. Because of the impound rule for the event, we got penalized twice. I’m not really sure why the cartoon anvil keeps dropping on the 28, but it’s frustrating. Great job by the whole 28 DHL Honda team. We had a good car to represent our partners and our teammates great today, but we were robbed.”