FORT WORTH, Texas (March 28, 2013) – Graham Rahal completed a trouble-free day of testing his No. 15 Midas / Big O Tires Honda-Dallara-Firestone race car last night at the 1.5-mile high-banked Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) oval. He completed 94 laps between 2-10 p.m. CT with a best lap time of 214.058 mph.
It was Rahal’s first time back at TMS since his near win there last year where he led 27 of the final 29 laps before a slight brush of the wall with two laps to go forced him to settle for second place. The Firestone 550 will take place at TMS on June 8.
“The test went really well,” said Rahal, 24. “We worked through some items that we wanted to try on the Midas / Big O Tires car and it worked out to be pretty beneficial. I think we found a good direction so hopefully when James (Jakes) comes back here after Long Beach we will have a good place to start with him and then move on to the race. We tried several things for Honda and some things for ourselves that Gerry and Eddie had planned, some of which were based on Eddie’s previous experience with other teams. There were some questions that we had and I think we found some good answers. We are pretty optimistic about coming back here for the race weekend.”
“Given the conditions which were very windy in the first part of the session and cooling off in the second, we had an interesting test,” added Race Engineer Gerry Hughes. “We made a couple of advances in terms of the setup for Texas Motor Speedway and I think it was a constructive test for us. We have a good degree of confidence for Barber in respect to the electronics system and the problems that we had in St. Pete so that was also constructive.”
Acorn Stairlifts driver James Jakes was scheduled to test but the team elected to reschedule for mid April in the hope that track conditions will be more in line with what the series will experience in June. The 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series season resumes with the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama on April 7 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala. The race will be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network at 3 p.m. ET. The IMS Radio Network will also carry the race live on Sirius and XM channels 211. The next Firestone Indy Lights race is the Legacy Indy Lights 100 on April 7. It will be telecast by NBC Sports Network immediately preceding the IZOD IndyCar Series race.
For more information, log on to www.rahal-staging.ktnlcqy7-liquidwebsites.com, www.grahamrahal-staging.ktnlcqy7-liquidwebsites.com www.jamesjakes.com or www.indycar.com.