Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Firestone 600 – Texas Motor Speedway
Verizon IndyCar Series
QUALIFYING NOTES/QUOTES – Friday, June 10, 2016
RAHAL QUALIFIED 13TH FOR SATURDAY NIGHT’S FIRESTONE 600 AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
POLE: Carlos Munoz 2-lap avg. speed of 217.137 mph (L1: 24.1148, L2: 24.1312)
13th: Graham Rahal 2-lap avg. speed of 215.927 mph (L1: 24.2484, L2: 24.2680)
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Mi-Jack / RLL Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I’m disappointed to start 13th. I thought the balance wasn’t bad in qualifying and I thought the speed, when I saw it, wasn’t bad based on last year. I didn’t think that many guys would go that much quicker but let’s focus on the race car and make it the best we can. I hate having to come from mid pack to challenge but we’ve got a lot of laps tomorrow night to do that. I only ran 10 laps this morning due to the gearbox issue and only ran one qualifying sim compared to others who did two or three but I thought the car felt pretty good. The guys did a great job to get the car fixed for qualifying.”
RLL AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY: The Firestone 600 will mark the 14th for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) at the 1.5-mile, high-banked Texas Motor Speedway oval. The team’s highest start of pole with Scott Sharp came in 2007 and highest finish of second came in 2005 with Vitor Meira. The team earned another front row start in 2004 when Buddy Rice qualified second. Prior to the 2016 event, the team prepared a total of 19 entries for drivers such as Kenny Brack (2003 x2), Buddy Rice (2004 x2; 2005, 2006), Vitor Meira (2004 x2; 2005), Danica Patrick (2005, 2006), Jeff Simmons (2007), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2008), Jay Howard (2011, Schmidt/RLL), Takuma Sato (2012) Graham Rahal (2013-2015) and James Jakes (2013). The team has earned three top-five finishes and six top-10’s at the track. The No. 15 entry for Graham Rahal will bring that total to 20 in 2016.
NEXT UP: There will be a 30-minute practice session from 6:45-7:15 p.m. CT tonight and the Firestone 600 will take the Green Flag at 7:50 p.m. CT Saturday. Live coverage will begin at 8 p.m. ET on NBCSN.
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