Rahal Set the Sixth Fastest Time Overall in Practice for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama

Verizon IndyCar Series

PRACTICE NOTES/QUOTES — Friday, April 22, 2016

RAHAL SET THE SIXTH FASTEST TIME OVERALL IN PRACTICE FOR THE HONDA INDY GRAND PRIX OF ALABAMA

1st:      Takuma Sato             1:07.2157 / 123.186 mph      

6th:     Graham Rahal           1:07.3494 / 122.952 mph       (5th fastest in Practice 2)    

GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Dallara/Honda/Firestone:  “Overall I feel pretty good with how we ran today. I feel like we have a decent car. Obviously I wanted to run a better lap at the end on new tires but it just didn’t quite work out.  We are learning a lot of things that will help improve the car.  We utilized the second session as a test session and kind of departed from where we were this morning and so far, so good. It would be great to win this race but, for us, we just need to get this season kicked off and there would be no better way to do that than to win.”

• FAST FACTS: Rahal will make his seventh start here… The 2015 race at Barber Motorsports Park (BMP) kicked off a strong run of races that largely continued for the rest of the season. Rahal started eighth at BMP and passed Kanaan on the opening lap. He later lost a position to Filippi but passed Dixon for 7th. He pitted and ran ninth place but moved to third as others made their stops. He held off charges from fourth place Hinchcliffe on several restarts and later built a gap on him while leading Laps 35-46. He pitted from the lead for his second stop, dropped to 15th but cycled back into the lead for Laps 65-69. He made his final stop on Lap 71 and returned to the track in sixth place, approx.. 20 seconds behind the leader. With new tires and more fuel than others, he consistently turned lap times that were one-to-two seconds quicker than those in front of him and eventually passed Power, Hunter-Reay and Castroneves before he was able to close the gap on second-place Dixon in the closing laps. With less than two laps to go, he passed Dixon but ran out of time to catch eventual race winner Newgarden and finished second… In 2014, Rahal started 18th on a wet track, ran as high as 10th, dropped four places after being hit by two cars and ultimately finished 17th. In 2013, Rahal set a lap time fast enough to progress to Round 2 and qualify in the top-12 if he had been in Group 2 but he was in Group 1 and ultimately qualified 21st. He had to pit for a new nose on the opening lap after the field checked up and he hit Servia. He moved up to 12th place but ran out of fuel on the final lap due to a malfunction in the fueling system and dropped to 21st.  He started 8th, led one lap and finished fourth here in 2012 for Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing (SCCGR). He started 10th and finished 18th in 2011 for SCCGR and started 15th and finished 17th for Sarah Fisher Racing in 2010… Is ranked ninth in series standings with 59 points.

RLL AT BARBER: In 2015, Graham Rahal brought the team its best starting position of eighth and finishing position of second at Barber. In 2014, Rahal finished 17th after running as high as 10th but was hit by two cars. Servia started 19th, ran as high as 14th and finished 20th.  In 2013, Rahal set a lap time fast enough to progress to Round 2 and qualify in the top-12 if he had been in Group 2 but he was in Group 1 and ultimately qualified 21st.  He had to pit for a new nose on the opening lap after the field checked up and he hit Oriol Servia. He moved up to 12th place but ran out of fuel on the final lap due to a malfunction in the fueling system and dropped to 21st.  James Jakes qualified 11th in 2013 but had to pit early in the race when the camber shims fell out of the left rear upright which put him two laps down to the leader. He soldiered on through fueling issues, set the fastest lap of the race and finished 23rd.  In 2012, Takuma Sato set the third fastest time in Friday’s first practice for the team and was fastest in the wet second session but traffic limited his qualifying performance to 16th.  In the race he passed four cars for 12th place on red alternate tires but struggled on primary tires and ultimately retired in 24th place due to mechanical failure after 52/90 laps.

NEXT UP: Final practice will take place tomorrow from 11:00 – 11:45 a.m. CT and qualifying will be 3:00-4:15 CT. NBCSN will broadcast qualifying live from 4:00-5:30 ET. The Honda Grand Prix of Alabama will be televised live on NBCSN from 3:00-6:00 PM ET Sunday, April 24.

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