Rahal and Sato Look Forward to the NTT IndyCar Series Debut at Circuit of the Americas
March 19, 2019
Sellers Drove to a Fourth Straight Podium Finish in the Sanya E-Prix But Was Disqualified Post Race Due to Technical Infraction; Legge Finished Fifth
March 23, 2019
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
INDYCAR Classic — Circuit of the Americas
Round 2 of 17 in the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series
PRACTICE NOTES/QUOTES – Friday, March 22, 2019
1) Will Power 1:47.4401 / 114.259 mph
8) Takuma Sato 1:48.3484 / 113.301 mph
13) Graham Rahal 1:48.5328 / 113.109 mph
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 TOTAL Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Practice 2 was a little frustrating for us. I don’t know that we got a great lap on the reds but still I don’t know that we quite have the pace to be in the top five yet. At the test we were fifth and this morning in the first practice we were fifth pretty easily and weren’t even really up to speed yet. We were pushing hard and I couldn’t match that lap time on blacks this afternoon. We need to take a deep dive into things and figure out why, when it was hot and the sun was out, why we weren’t as good. We’re going to work hard overnight to try to get the TOTAL car faster. Takuma set about the same time as us so we’re going to put our heads together and try to figure out how to go quicker.”
FAST FACTS: Will make his first start at this track … Has six IndyCar Series wins (2008 – St. Pete street course; 2015 – Fontana Super Speedway, Mid-Ohio road course; 2016 – Texas Super Speedway; 2017 Detroit Race 1, Detroit Race 2) and three poles (2009 – St. Pete street course, Kansas oval; 2017 – Detroit Race 1 street) and his highest series season-ending standing is fourth place in 2015.
TAKUMA SATO, No. 30 Mi-Jack / Panasonic Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We had two practice sessions as well as a warmup today, which is new since we usually do it on race day. We made long runs with full tanks. The car improved a lot from the test but the conditions, compared to then, were much different. It was much warmer today than when we tested so we had less downforce and the tires started to slide so it was a difficult for everyone. We seem to have a good speed for one lap for qualifying but we have a lot of work to be done on our long run. It’s exciting to be at COTA; the fans are very enthusiastic. I think we have a lot more speed so we will keep working on it.”
FAST FACTS: Will be his first start here… Has three wins (2013 – Long Beach; 2017 Indianapolis 500; 2018 – Portland) and seven series poles (2011 – Iowa (oval); 2011 – Edmonton (street); 2013 – Houston Race 1 (street); 2014 – St. Pete (street); 2014 Detroit Race 2 (street); 2017 – Detroit Race 2; 2017 – 2017 Pocono (oval).
NEXT UP: Practice will take place tomorrow from 10-10:45 a.m. ET and qualifying is 2-3:15 PM. Timing and Scoring information is available for all sessions at www.indycar.com. The INDYCAR Classic will be televised live onNBCSN at 1 PM ET Sunday, March 24.
