Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
Verizon IndyCar Series
QUALIFYING NOTES/QUOTES – July 30, 2016
STEAK ‘N SHAKE DRIVER RAHAL QUALIFIED SIXTH FOR THE HONDA INDY 200 AT MID-OHIO; PROGRESSED TO FAST SIX QUALIFYING ROUND ALL FOUR ROAD COURSE RACES IN 2016
POLE: Simon Pagenaud 1:03.8700 / 127.271 mph (Round 3; Group 1)
6) Graham Rahal 1:04.4697 / 126.087 mph (Round 3; Group 2)
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Steak ‘n Shake Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I’m really pleased with the performance of the Steak ‘n Shake team. These guys never cease to amaze me and they did one heck of a job today. The weekend did not start off well but they kept working hard. I’m pleased to be starting sixth. I started 13th last year so I have a lot less work to do. There are a lot of fast guys around us but I think we can out race them. It’s going to be a physical race. There is going to be a lot of tired guys out here tomorrow. It’s going to be a pretty hard race so hopefully that suits our team well. To be honest, we played our card and decided to run one set of reds (Firestone alternate tires) through three stints so that was a pretty old set of tires we ran at the end. Had we put the other set of reds on I think we could have gone considerably better but we know from looking at strategy from last year that to have good reds is going to be key for the race so we decided to keep a set fresh and not use them for more than one run. Group 2 (Rahal’s group) got a little hosed with the rain so we had to use two sets of reds in our group.”
RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING AT MID-OHIO … The Honda Indy 200 will mark the 19th Indy car event for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) here and the first time to return as the defending champion. The team also competed in the Atlantic Series race in 2003 with Danica Patrick and has competed in ALMS races here in 2007 and from 2009-2012. The team has one win (G. Rahal 2015), three podiums (3rd: B. Rahal 1997, 1998) and the highest start is pole (Herta 1997). Another front row start came in 1999 (Herta; 2nd). Prior to the 2016 event, the team prepared a total of 28 Indy car entries for drivers Bobby Rahal (1992-98), Mike Groff (1994), Raul Boesel (1995), Bryan Herta (1996-99), Max Papis (1999-2001), Jimmy Vasser (2002), Michel Jourdain Jr. (2002-03) Ryan Hunter-Reay (2007-2008), Takuma Sato (2012), Graham Rahal (2013-2015) and James Jakes (2013). The team has earned THREE podiums (1st – G. Rahal; 3rd – Rahal 1997, 1998), 11 top-five’s and 15 top-10 finishes at the track. The No. 15 Steak ‘n Shake entry for Graham Rahal will bring the Indy car total to 29 entries in 2016.
NEXT UP: The morning warm-up will take place tomorrow from 10:15-10:45 a.m. ET and the 90-lap race will take the Green Flag at 2:45 p.m. The Honda Indy 200 will be televised live on CNBC beginning at 2:00 PM ET Sunday, July 31. NBCSN will re-air the race beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET.
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