Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 Presented by PennGrade
Verizon IndyCar Series
QUALIFYING DAY 2 NOTES/QUOTES – Sunday, May 22, 2016
RAHAL WILL START 26TH IN THE INDY 500 AND PIGOT WILL START 29TH
1st: James Hinchcliffe 4-lap avg. speed of 230.760 mph (L1: 38.9804, L2: 38.9711, L3: 39.0007, L4: 39.0541)
26th: Graham Rahal 4-lap avg. speed of 225.847 mph (L1: 39.7369, L2: 39.8297, L3: 39.8258, L4: 40.0078)
29th: Spencer Pigot 4-lap avg. speed of 224.847 mph (L1: 40.1289, L2: 40.1099, L3: 39.9937, L4: 39.8762)
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Steak ‘n Shake Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I have been chasing it all week, particularly in qualifying trim. It’s been frustrating obviously because the car has gone slower as the week has gone on and I’m not sure why that is. My race car is really good, this is just a qualifying-trim issue. We can’t put our finger on it so we’re going to have to go back and figure it out for next year. We wanted to qualify further up for the points. We’re going to lose 30-plus points to lead group in the championship which is frustrating because we were fifth in the points coming into qualifying. This is going to hurt us pretty bad but what can we do? We’ve got to focus on next Sunday and try to get another Rahal in victory lane along with Steak ‘n Shake, PennGrade and all of our partners. We can win this thing. I started 29th and earned my best finish of third here. I’ve seen it all happen here. I’m not worried about the race.”
SPENCER PIGOT, No. 16 RLL / Mi-Jack / Manitowoc Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “The car was definitely very comfortable today. I think we put a little bit more downforce on expecting it to be hot, windy and kind of difficult like it was this morning but it turned out to maybe be just a little bit too much. It was comfortably flat the whole time but that’s alright. The important thing is that we’re going to be racing in the Indy 500 and the car is in one piece so a big thank you to everyone at the team. I think we have a good race car and we will put in a lot of laps in the next couple of days of practice to try and fine tune it.”
NEXT UP: Final practice will take place tomorrow from 12:30-4:00 PM ET and all drivers will participate in the annual Indy 500 media tour on Tuesday. Rahal will take part in a Speeding to Read event at Texas Motor Speedway and Pigot will attend the annual Fastest Rookie Luncheon at the Brickyard Crossing Golf Course and later travel to Louisville, Kentucky where he and other rookies will visit the Louisville Zoo. Carb Day practice will take place on Friday, May 27 from 11-12:00 PM ET.
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