Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma
Verizon IndyCar Series
QUALIFYING NOTES/QUOTES – August 29, 2015
STEAK ‘N SHAKE DRIVER RAHAL QUALIFIED SIXTH FOR THE INDYCAR SEASON FINALE GOPRO GRAND PRIX OF SONOMA
POLE: Will Power 1:16.2597 / 112.589 mph (Round 3; Group 2)
2nd: Josef Newgarden 1:16.3964 / 112.387 mph (Round 3; Group 2)
5th: Juan Pablo Montoya 1:16.8437 / 111.733 mph (Round 3; Group 1)
6th: Graham Rahal 1:17.1769 / 111.251 mph (Round 3; Group 1)
9th: Scott Dixon 1:16.9677 / 111.553 mph (Round 2; Group 2)
15th: Helio Castroneves 1:17.4310 / 111.138 mph (Round 1; Group 1)
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Steak ‘n Shake Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It’s interesting to see how all the strategies played out. Most of those guys ran new black Firestone tires there and we kept those for the race so they’re going to have one less set of new tires than us going in to the race. We think that this will be a three-stopper for sure so hopefully that plays into our advantage tomorrow. Obviously I didn’t want to qualify sixth, I wanted better than that but everybody else took a flyer on new blacks and it worked out pretty well for them. We’ll see what happens but our goal is to try to beat him (Montoya) and to try to win this race. I hope that we can keep the rear tires under us for the whole stint better than everybody else. We’re trying to win the championship here, trying to get the Steak ‘n Shake Honda in Victory Lane again. Obviously he and I are going to be eye-to-eye, wheel-to-wheel all day so it will be interesting to see what happens here.”
RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING AT SONOMA … The race will mark the eighth Indy car event for RLL here. The highest start for the team here is sixth by Buddy Rice (2005) and Graham Rahal (2015) and highest finish is second by Buddy Rice in 2005. Prior to the 2015 event, the team prepared a total of 13 Indy car entries for drivers Buddy Rice (2005-2006), Vitor Meira (2005), Danica Patrick (2005-2006), Jeff Simmons (2006), Scott Sharp (2007), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2007-2008), Takuma Sato (2012), Graham Rahal (2013-2014) and James Jakes (2013). The team has earned one podium (2nd – Rice 2005), one top-five and four top-10 finishes at the track. The No. 15 Steak ‘n Shake entry for Graham Rahal will bring the Indy car total to 14 entries in 2015.
NEXT UP: Morning warmup will take place tomorrow from 10:00-10:30 a.m. PT and the 85-lap GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma will take the Green Flag at 2:07 PM PT. NBCSN will begin coverage at 4 PM ET Sunday.
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