Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Indianapolis 500
Verizon IndyCar Series
FINAL QUALIFYING NOTES/QUOTES – May 18, 2014
SERVIA AND RAHAL QUALIFIED 18TH AND 20TH FOR THE INDIANAPOLIS 500
1st: Ed Carpenter 4-lap avg. speed of 230.661 mph (L1: 38.8866, L2: 38.9255, L3: 39.0000, L4: 38.9871)
18th: Oriol Servia 4-lap avg. speed of 229.752 mph (L1: 39.1301, L2: 39.1688, L3: 39.1799, L4: 39.2117)
20th: Graham Rahal 4-lap avg. speed of 229.628 mph (L1: 39.1594, L2: 39.1597, L3: 39.2097, L4: 39.2468)
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 National Guard Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “The way our car has gone the last couple of days, it gets pretty loose as the run has gone on. Both Oriol and myself have found great improvements today to find that sort of speed. To be honest I made a mistake, I should have run sixth gear it didn’t fell like it was quite pulling the gear but it probably could have. At the end of the day I’m really proud of the National Guard guys. Going into qualifying yesterday, we had no idea what to expect out of the car in qualifying. We hadn’t even tried qualifying trim and this morning we kind of threw a flyer at it a little bit. Our qualifying car isn’t all that different than a race car so we will add more downforce for Monday’s practice, hopefully pound around with Oriol and get some laps in traffic. I think our race car is going to be pretty good. We didn’t get a lot of track time last week, nobody did, but I felt like we were a little bit behind. We have a lot more confidence going after what we came into yesterday and today. Tomorrow is a really big day for us.”
ORIOL SERVIA, No. 16 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I’m very happy, the car felt like it should during qualifying at Indy. We worked very hard and we almost gained two miles since yesterday which is a credit to the work my mechanics and engineers put in since yesterday. We knew we didn’t have it yesterday but today was much better. We took a bigger risk today on the setup. I didn’t want it to get too hot because you lose downforce and we’re just on the limit. That’s why every lap I kept losing a little and the car kept sliding and sliding. We really got everything out of it. It was the perfect balance and as trimmed as we could be. I’m very happy with that based on where we were progress wise. Honestly, there is nothing like qualifying at this place when you are on the edge but know the car feels good. You just get a feeling, it’s almost indescribable but it was a lot of fun.”
RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING AT INDY … The team’s highest start and finish in the event came in 2004 when Buddy Rice won from pole. In addition, the team has earned a total of four podiums (2nd – Meira 2005; 3rd – Rahal 1994, 1995). The 2014 race will mark the 17th year for the team in the event. Prior to 2014, the team prepared a total of 30 entries for drivers such as Bobby Rahal (1992-1995), Mike Groff (1994), Raul Boesel (1995), Jimmy Vasser (2002-2003), Kenny Brack (2003, 2005), Buddy Rice (2004, 2006; DNC 2005 due to practice crash), Vitor Meira (2004, 2005), Roger Yasukawa (2004), Danica Patrick (2005, 2006), Jeff Simmons (2006, 2007), Scott Sharp (2007), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2008), Oriol Servia (2009), Graham Rahal (2010 and 2013), Bertrand Baguette (2011), Jay Howard (2011), Takuma Sato (2012), Michel Jourdain (2012) and James Jakes (2013).
NEXT UP: There will be a practice session tomorrow from 12:00-5:00 p.m. EDT. Timing and Scoring information is available for all sessions from www.indycar.com and includes live commentary by the IMS Radio Network.
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