Rahal Qualified a Season-Best Sixth Place for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama; Earned Best Start at Barber Motorsports Park

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama

Verizon IndyCar Series

QUALIFYING NOTES/QUOTES — Saturday, April 23, 2016

RAHAL QUALIFIED A SEASON-BEST OF SIXTH PLACE FOR THE HONDA INDY GRAND PRIX OF ALABAMA; IT IS ALSO HIS BEST START AT BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK

1)         Simon Pagenaud      1:06.7262 / 124.089 mph       (Group 2, Round 3)

6)         Graham Rahal           1:07.6388 / 122.415 mph       (Group 1, Round 3)  

GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Dallara/Honda/Firestone:  “It will make life a little easier being this far forward. It’s always an interesting race around this place but we’ll just have to see how it plays out tomorrow. I think we have a pretty good race car. Qualifying pace is typically our concern. When other teams can turn it up a bit, we kind of struggle with pace.  For us to get in to the Fast Six, the 1:06.8 I did was about as good of a lap as I think I have ever put together here. From comments I’ve heard from others, they are struggling with the rear tires going off a lot in the long run and I don’t really have that problem.  We’re going to keep our heads down, keep focused and try to do what we always do, just out race them a little bit. And if we can keep the rear tires under us, save some fuel hopefully to make the end of the race easier so we can attack hard, I think it will put us in a good spot.”

• FAST FACTS: Rahal earned his best qualifying position of the season of sixth place today. It was his first appearance in the Firestone Fast Six since the 2015 season-finale in Sonoma. He also started sixth in the 2016 season-opener in St. Petersburg after qualifying seventh because the No. 12 pole-winning car had to start at the back of the field due to a driver change. 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: Rahal brought the team its best start at Barber Motorsports Park today of sixth place. In 2015, Graham Rahal brought the team its previous best starting position of eighth and best finishing position of second here. 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: The pre-race warmup will take place tomorrow from 9:30 – 10:00 a.m. CT and the 90-lap Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama will take the green flag at 2:45 local time. Race coverage will begin on NBCSN at 3:00 PM ET Sunday, April 24.

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