RAIN LIMITED RUNNING ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG INDYCAR SEASON OPENER; RAHAL WAS 13TH OVERALL IN PRACTICE AND FOURTH FASTEST HONDA
1) Will Power 1:01.4709 / 105.416 mph (Set in Practice 1; no cars ran in P2)
13) Graham Rahal 1:02.1850 / 104.205 mph (Set in Practice 1; no cars ran in P2)
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Mi-Jack Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We would have liked to have gotten back on track for the second session to see if we could improve but it didn’t make sense to run in the rain because the weather the rest of the weekend looks good so there was nothing to be gained. I thought the car was decent in the first session but we have a little work to do to make some improvements. We are in the thick of it but we need to find a little more speed to leap us up to the next group of guys. I feel okay about the day though. If we find ourselves a couple of tweaks, we can shuffle ourselves up the grid. There is more work to be done Saturday and I’m looking forward to getting out there.”
EIGHTH ST. PETE EVENT FOR RLL: This will mark the eighth IndyCar race for the team in St. Pete and the 13th car entered. The team prepared Indy cars for Danica Patrick (2005, 2006), Buddy Rice (2005, 2006), Vitor Meira (2005), Jeff Simmons (2007), Scott Sharp (2007), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2008), Takuma Sato (2012), Graham Rahal (2013-2014) and James Jakes (2013) prior to this year. The team led 11 laps with Takuma Sato in 2012 and four laps with Hunter-Reay in 2008 (G. Rahal won w/NHLR) and has earned three top-10 finishes with the best being fifth by Meira in 2005. The highest starting position by the team is sixth place by Hunter-Reay in 2008.
NEXT UP: Practice will take place tomorrow from 12:30-1:15 p.m. ET. Qualifying will take place from 4:15-5:30 PM. Timing and Scoring information and live streaming video is available for all sessions from www.indycar.com. The season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will be televised live on ABC at 3:00 PM ET Sunday, March 29.
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