Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
PRACTICE NOTES/QUOTES – Friday, March 3, 2023
THE 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES SEASON OPENED WITH FRIDAY’S PRACTICE SESSION HELD IN WINDY CONDITIONS; FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETE QUALIFYING ON SATURDAY
1) Scott Dixon 1:01.6145 / 105.170 mph
17) Jack Harvey 1:02.3236 / 103.973 mph
25) Christian Lundgaard 1:03.0412 / 102.720 mph
26) Graham Rahal 1:03.1389 / 102.631 mph
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 United Rentals Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We are really lacking rear support and grip, which is natural. Everybody is lacking grip but we’ve got to find a way to get some consistency. I can’t hit the brake pedal. I went straight on five or six times in the session which is not normal, and we ultimately ended our session with a wall brush due to the rear brakes locking, which shut the engine off and the whole deal. We’ve got to look into it, figure out what’s going on and get the United Rentals car turned around overnight. Its close, its competitive. Only 1.4 seconds separates us from first and we’re in the back. Frankly I feel that I can’t push at all. That’s a positive actually, which may sound weird, but it’s a positive because I think we can find a lot of that gap if we can find some stability.”
JACK HARVEY, No. 45 Kustom Entertainment Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I thought that was a good start for us there. Every time we went on track, I thought we were a top-10 car. We went to new tires at the end to improve our time but found another car that wouldn’t move out of the way but I thought we had a potential top-10 car. The balance was pretty good so hopefully we just keep that going throughout the weekend.”
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD, No. 45 Hy-Vee Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “That was not the way we wanted to finish the session, (brushed the wall; damaged car) but I think there are some positives to take from the session. We didn’t really have the competitive car that we hoped and expected to have. The wind is quite strong out there and if that’s what messed up the balance, I don’t know. Apparently, that’s across two of our cars so we’ll have to dig deep tomorrow and see how much we can improve for qualifying.”
NEXT UP: Practice 2 will take place from 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. ET tomorrow and qualifying will take place from 2:15 – 3:30 p.m. Both sessions will be televised live on Peacock. The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will be televised live on NBC beginning at 12 PM ET on Sunday, March 5 and the Green Flag will fly at 12:30 PM ET.