Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 Presented by PennGrade
Verizon IndyCar Series
FAST FRIDAY PRACTICE NOTES/QUOTES – May 20, 2016
RAHAL SET THE 17TH FASTEST TIME IN PRACTICE ON FAST FRIDAY AND PIGOT WAS 26TH
1) Will Power 232.672 mph 32 laps
17) Graham Rahal 230.140 mph 46 laps
26) Spencer Pigot 229. 125 mph 66 laps
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Steak ‘n Shake Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It was an up and down day. We found some stuff there at the end that helped but we’re seemingly struggling just for pure speed which is frustrating but the guys are going to work hard. I think we got the balance a little closer to where it needs to be here at the end. Obviously we got in the 230’s (mph) in the no tow which was good but I think we need to be better than that to reach the top nine, if that’s within reach. There is a lot of work ahead of us. We will find out how we are in the morning in practice. We worked hard today to get us to where we are at the end of the day. Yesterday we had a ton of speed and today was a different animal. I’m not sure what’s going on there but we will put our heads down and focus forward.”
- FAST FACTS: Will be his ninth Indy 500. His best qualifying position in the Indy 500 is fourth in 2009 with Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing and best finish is third with Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing in 2011 after he led six laps. He ran in the top-five in five of his eight previous races here. In 2008, with Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, he was the highest Indy 500 starter of the Champ Car transitioning teams with his 13th place qualifying effort but made contact on L36 after driving high to avoid the slower car of Lloyd and retired in 33rd place. He qualified fourth for NHLR in the 2009 Indy 500 but made contact on L56 while fifth and retired in 31st. In 2010, he competed for his father’s team – RLL – for the first time in an Indy car. He qualified seventh and ran as high as second but a blocking penalty on L188/200 dropped him from third to a 12th place finish. He qualified 29th with Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing in 2011 and earned his best finish at Indy to date of third place after he led six laps. In 2012, he qualified 12th, ran as high as third and finished 13th for SCCGR. In 2013, he qualified 26th and pitted from ninth place for his second to last stop and his outside rear tire changer had a mechanical problem and Rahal returned to the track in 21st place. He was in 17th with eight laps to go and lost control of his car in Turn 2 and made contact with the wall. In 2014, he started 20th but finished 33rd due to an electrical problem that kept shutting his engine off . In 2015, he drove to a fifth place finish after starting 17th. … His best qualifying position of the season so far is third at the IMS road course (later DQ’d due to being a few pounds under weight) and best finish is second at Barber… He is fifth in series point standings with a total of 133. Fourth place Castroneves has 159 (+26) and leader Pagenaud has 242 (+109).
SPENCER PIGOT, No. 16 RLL / Mi-Jack / Manitowoc Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It was good to get some laps in today after missing out on quite a few the past few days. We spent most of the day running in race trim, trying to make sure everything felt good again. We did the last 45 minutes with the added boost and started to work on qualifying and we started to put a pretty good time together. The car is feeling really good. Again, I can’t thank all of the guys enough for working their butts off to get me back out there today.”
- FAST FACTS: Will be his first IndyCar Series race on an oval and third overall… In his series debut in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Pigot ran as high as 12th and finished 14th…Although he started from pole in two of his four races here, his finishing positions have been limited due to Turn 1 incidents in all four races. In 2014, he competed in the Pro Mazda doubleheader where he started from pole in both races and finished eighth in both. In 2015, he competed in the Indy Lights doubleheader where he qualified sixth for Race 1 and finished seventh and qualified and finished 12th in race two. He still holds the Pro Mazda qualifying record which he set in 2014 (1:26.9623 / 105.836)… Pigot is the most successful driver since the formation of the Mazda Road to Indy in 2010 with 24 race wins to his credit in USF2000, Pro Mazda and Indy Lights. He was the 15th driver to graduate from the Mazda Road to Indy into the Verizon IndyCar Series since 2010. He has won no fewer than four scholarship prizes from Mazda to maintain his career’s momentum to get to the IndyCar Series.
NEXT UP: Group 1 will practice from 8:00-8:30 AM ET tomorrow and Group 2 will practice from 8:30-9:00. All cars will practice from 9:00-10:00 and qualifying will begin at 11 AM ET. Rahal and Pigot will both be in Group 2.
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