Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Pre-Race Notes
Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix – Barber Motorsports Park, Leeds, Alabama
Round 4 of 17 in the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES
DATE: Friday – Sunday, April 26 – 28, 2024
PRACTICE BROADCAST: Live on Peacock Premium on Friday from 3:55 – 5:10 p.m. EDT, Saturday from 12:15 – 1:15 p.m. ET and Sunday from 10:15 – 10:45 a.m. EDT. Also live on the INDYCAR Radio Network (IRN) and www.indycar.com (timing & scoring + live analysis).
QUALIFYING BROADCAST: Live on Peacock, NBC’s streaming platform, the IRN and www.indycar.com (timing & scoring + live analysis) from 3:30 – 5:00 p.m. EDT Saturday.
RACE BROADCAST: Live on NBC on Sunday, April 28 from 1 – 4 p.m. EDT. And also on Peacock, IRN and Sirius XM INDYCAR Nation 218 and SiriusXM NBC Sports Audio 85.
TRACK LAYOUT: 2.38-mile, 17-turn road course
RACE LENGTH: 90 laps / 207 miles
2023 WINNER: Scott McLaughlin
2023 POLESITTER: Romain Grosjean (125.760 mph)
RLL TOP START / FINISH AT BARBER: 1st by Sato in 2019 / 1st by Sato in 2019; 11 events
RAHAL’S BEST START / FINISH AT BARBER: 2nd in 2019 / 2nd in 2015 and 2016 – Both with RLL; will be his 14th race here
RAHAL’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH: 5 Poles – St. Pete (street) 2009, Kansas (oval) 2009, Detroit (street) 2017, IMS (road) 2023, Portland (road) 2023 / 6 Wins – St. Pete 2008, Fontana (oval; 500 miles) 2015, Mid-Ohio (road) 2015, Texas (oval) 2016; Detroit Race 1 (street) 2017, Detroit Race 2 2017
FITTIPALDI’S BEST START / FINISH AT BARBER: Will be his first race here
FITTIPALDI’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH: 10th at Phoenix (2018) / 9th at Portland (2018)
LUNDGAARD’S BEST START / FINISH AT BARBER: 6th / 6th – both in 2023; will be his third race here
LUNDGAARD’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH: 2 Poles – IMS (road) May 2023, Toronto (street) 2023 / 1 Win – Toronto 2023
NEWS & NOTES:
RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING AT BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK
The 2024 Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix (CAIGP) will mark the 12th INDYCAR SERIES race for the team at Barber Motorsports Park (BMP). Team highlights include a 1-2 start in 2019 with Sato and Rahal and a victory by Sato. For 2024, RLL has entered the No. 15 Hendrickson Honda for Graham Rahal, the No. 30 Mi-Jack Honda for Pietro Fittipaldi and the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda for Christian Lundgaard which brings the total to 23 entries for RLL for this event.
GRAHAM AT BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK
Rahal’s best start at BMP is second in 2019 and his best finish is second, two times (2015-2016) in his previous 13 races here. Last year, he started 19th and the team planned for a two-stop strategy but the timing of a caution led them to opt to jump in the pits to switch to the primary tires as a caution looked likely to happen. Track position and other factors contributed to a 17th place finish. A race-by-race description of previous years, including his two, second-place finishes, is available upon request. Since the series last raced at Barber, Rahal has won two road course poles at IMS and Portland. He’s hoping that performance translates to BMP.
“We found some decent things at the test to make the car better. For me it was more about pounding laps and working on braking and some of the other items on our test list, including working on improvements with the shocks. I think the other guys (teammates) had a more condensed schedule and were able to attack a little hard on qualifying pace, but we had a good day and I’m looking forward to going back. Barber is an amazing place and last year’s results were not the ones we had hoped for. This time around hopefully we can get the right strategy and make the right moves to put ourselves in a good spot there. I hope some of the knowledge to got us two road course poles at the end of last season translates over. We were decent at the test, but I wouldn’t say we were as fast as some of the other guys so we’re working to close that gap. It’s a race that a lot of the drivers enjoy going to, it’s a race that’s extremely exciting with a lot of passing and where a lot of craziness happens. We’re excited to drive the Hendrickson Honda for the first time and hopefully put in a strong result.”
PIETRO FITTIPALDI RETURNS TO A TRACK HE HAS SOME FAMILIARITY WITH FOR FIRST TIME IN 2024
The Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix of Alabama will mark Fittipaldi’s fourth new track of four races this season but unlike St. Pete, Thermal and Long Beach, he tested here in March so he will be familiar with the layout. He is looking forward to returning to a road course after having shown strong potential at The Thermal Club before a fueling issue forced his retirement.
“It was great to test at Barber. It was obviously my first time there and I was able to get up to speed and familiarize myself with it, which is super important to me. It was a nice head start on race weekend; the mileage was crucial. The track was amazing. It’s like a roller coaster and I’m excited for the race.”
LUNDGAARD HOPES HIS STRONG TESTING PACE AT BMH TRANSLATES TO A STRONG RESULT
Christian is looking forward to returning to BMP after a sixth-place finish last year and showing strong pace at a team test here on March 18. In 2023, he started sixth, ran as high as fourth and ultimately finished sixth on a two-stop strategy to the winner’s three-stop one… In 2022, he started 14th and ran as high as ninth before his first stop, which was delayed by David Malukas entering the pit ahead of him as he needed to depart which dropped him many positions and he ultimately finished 15th.
“The Barber test was mostly good. We were competitive early on in the day. I think we started where we left off in 2023, which was a big step forward. Unfortunately, I didn’t help our running by having an incident but we repaired the car and got back on track before the end of the day and the pace increased straightaway in the one run I had at the end so I think there is a lot of optimism going into Barber. That was the big step that we made last year. We know our road course car is fast, we know Long Beach is a place we made a big improvement, so I don’t see a reason why we won’t have that at Barber as well. We just need to put it all together.”
POINT STANDINGS AFTER 3 OF 17 RACES
Rahal is ranked 16th in series point standings with a total of 27. Lundgaard is 14th with 49 and Harvey is 19th with 37.Fittipaldi is 20th with 21 points and Lundgaard is 23rd with 18 points.