Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Grand Prix of Indianapolis
Verizon IndyCar Series
RACE NOTES/QUOTES – May 10, 2014
SERVIA LED SEVEN LAPS UNTIL HE PIT FOR A LATE-RACE SPLASH OF FUEL AND FINISHED 12TH; RAHAL WAS 11TH WHEN HE WAS HIT BY MONTOYA ON A RESTART AND FINISHED 21ST
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 National Guard Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I got punted. Montoya was a lap down. He almost hit me actually on the restart before. He tried to dive-bombed me into Turn 7. He was a lap down and I don’t know what he was trying to do playing with the leaders but he just ruined our day. The National Guard car was really good. We were looking to be third at that point because by the time the pit sequence cycled through we were in the hunt for a win there. There’s nothing you can do. I must say though that these starts are pretty stupid. With the restart zone being that late, this is what happens. You can’t see back there because the rear wing is so big. We need to work with the officials to try to change this because there’s going to be a lot of accidents. I said to my dad on the restart before ‘Someone is going to get hurt out here because you can’t see.’ They need to let the leader go earlier. Right now the way it is, they’re trying to be like NASCAR and this isn’t NASCAR. We can’t just bump draft each other and this is what can happen if we do this late restart. I feel bad for the National Guard guys because this car was good today.”
ORIOL SERVIA, No. 16 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “The start was crazy and we had bad luck, but in a way good luck. A tire flew in the air and landed in front of my wing. And actually for half of the straight I was pushing the whole tire in front of me and I was afraid to jump over it and break more stuff. Luckily it only broke the front wing. Then we changed the wing but I think something else got bent because the whole race I was very, very loose to the right hand corner. I almost stopped early on but then we changed the front wing angle to balance it and the car was reasonable. We were not super quick but at the end we knew that we either had to save a lot of fuel like some of the guys which meant we couldn’t attack and finish seventh or eighth or try to win. If there was just one more yellow, we could easily get to the end. We only needed one yellow. It was a chance to win and when we were leading, that’s all we needed was one yellow but it didn’t happen but it was definitely fun. From starting where we started, I think we came back really strong. We’re ready to attack the month of May very aggressively.”
RLL AT INDY ROAD COURSE…. This marked the first race for the team at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Graham Rahal and RLL were one of two drivers/teams asked to provide input on possible changes to the course during a test here on September 4, 2013. The 2014 Indy 500 will mark the 17th time for the team to compete in the Indy 500, and event the team won from pole in 2004 with Buddy Rice.
NEXT UP: Opening Day for the 98th Indy 500 is tomorrow. Practice will take place from 12-6 p.m. ET. 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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