Rahal Returns to One of His Favorite Ovals While Fittipaldi and Lundgaard Make Their Track Debut at the Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250 Doubleheader

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250 – The Milwaukee Mile
Pre-Race Notes
Round 15 & 16 of 17 in the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES

DATE:     August 30 – September 1, 2024

PRACTICE BROADCAST:     Live on Peacock Premium on Friday from 4:30 – 6:00 p.m. ET. Also live on the INDYCAR Radio Network (IRN) and www.indycar.com (timing & scoring + live analysis).

QUALIFYING BROADCAST:     Live on Peacock Premium, the IRN and www.indycar.com (timing & scoring + live analysis) from 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. ET Saturday.

RACE BROADCAST(S):     Race 1 is live on Peacock on Saturday, August 31 from 5:40 – 8:00 p.m. ET and Race 2 is live on USA Network on Sunday, September 1 from 2:30 – 5:30 p.m. ET. And also on Peacock Premium, IRN, Sirius XM INDYCAR Nation 218 and SiriusXM NBC Sports Audio 85.

TRACK LAYOUT:     1-mile oval
RACE LENGTH:     250 laps / 250 miles

2015 WINNER:     Sebastien Bourdais
2015 POLESITTER:     Josef Newgarden (170.223 mph)

RAHAL’S BEST OVAL START / FINISH:     Pole (Kansas 2009) / 1st (Fontana 2015; Texas 2016)
RAHAL’S BEST START / FINISH AT MILWAUKEE:     2nd in 2008 & 2009 / 2nd in 2011
RAHAL’S HIGHEST SERIES START / FINISH:     5 poles – Pole at St. Pete (street) 2009, Kansas (oval) 2009, Detroit Race 1 (street) 2017, IMS (road) 2023 August, Portland (road) / 6 wins – 1st in St. Pete in 2008, Fontana & Mid-Ohio 2015, Texas 2016, Detroit Race 1 & Race 2 2017

FITTIPALDI’S BEST OVAL START / FINISH:     10th (Phoenix, 2018) / 11th (WWTR, 2018)
FITTIPALDI’S BEST START / FINISH AT MILWAUKEE:     First event here
FITTIPALDI’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH:     10th at Phoenix oval (2018) / 9th at Portland (2018)

LUNDGAARD’S BEST OVAL START / FINISH:     17th (Iowa 2, 2022) / 10th (Iowa 1, 2022)
LUNDGAARD’S BEST START / FINISH AT MILWAUKEE:     First race here
LUNDGAARD’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH:     2 Poles – IMS (road course) 2023, Toronto (street) 2023 / 1 Win – Toronto (street) 2023

RLL’S TOP START / FINISH AT MILWAUKEE:     1st by Rahal (1992), Brack (2001), Meira (2004) / 1st by Brack (2001) and Jourdain Jr. (2003)

NEWS & NOTES:

2 WINS, 3 POLES, 5 PODIUMS & 4 FRONT ROW STARTS AT MILWAUKEE MILE FOR RLL
The Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250 doubleheader will mark the 22nd and 23rd events for RLL at the legendary Milwaukee Mile oval.  The team WON here twice (Kenny Brack 2001 & Michel Jourdain Jr. 2003), started from POLE three times (Bobby Rahal 1992, Kenny Brack 2001, Vitor Meira 2004), made four FRONT ROW STARTS (2^nd – Jourdain Jr. 2003) and earned FOUR PODIUMS (2^nd: Rahal 2004, Rice 2004; G. Rahal 2015).  Prior to the 2024 event, the team prepared a total of 38 entries for drivers such as Bobby Rahal (1992-98), Mike Groff (1993-94), Raul Boesel (1995), Bryan Herta (1996-99), Max Papis (1999-2001), Kenny Brack (2000-2001), Jimmy Vasser (2002), Michel Jourdain Jr. (2002-03), Buddy Rice (2004-06), Vitor Meira (2004-05), Danica Patrick (2005-06), Jeff Simmons (2006-07), Scott Sharp (2007), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2008), Takuma Sato (2012), Graham Rahal (2013-2015) and James Jakes (2013). The team has earned 11 top-five finishes and 20 top-10’s at the track. The team will enter the No. 15 Hendrickson car for Graham Rahal, the No. 30 Mi-Jack Honda for Pietro Fittipaldi and the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda for Christian Lundgaard to bring that total to 41 in 2024.

GRAHAM AT THE MILWAUKEE MILE – SITE OF 2 FRONT ROW STARTS + 2 PODIUMS
The Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250 doubleheader will mark Graham’s eighth and ninth races here. He narrowly missed winning his first pole here in 2008 by 2/10th of a second over a four-lap average and started a career best second to Marco Andretti with Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing (NHLR) in what was the first Andretti/Rahal front row since 1992 in Loudon, NH.  He ran between second and fourth until Lap 130 when he drove over “marbles” and lost control of his car after trying to go around the slower car of Darren Manning and retired in 25th place. He qualified second with NHLR in 2009 and briefly took the lead at the start but dropped to third by the end of the lap and ultimately finished fourth, his highest finish on an oval at the time. In 2010, he ran a partial season and did not race at Milwaukee. In 2011, he qualified 12th and finished second with Service Central/Chip Ganassi Racing (SCCGR).  He qualified 17th, started 11th with SCCGR after many ahead served an engine change penalty and finished ninth in 2012 with SCCGR. In 2013, he qualified 23rd with RLL but started 24th due to a 10-grid penalty for an unapproved engine change and he finished 16th. In 2014, he qualified and finished 14th with RLL. In 2015, the last time the series raced here, he qualified sixth, led five laps, and finished third to depart the event third in points with four races to go. He is looking forward to returning to the historic venue.
“I always look forward to racing at Milwaukee. It’s probably my favorite oval we’ve raced at and has been for years. We had a challenging test there in June, so I think it’s going to be important for us to have a good starting setup and baseline to go back with. I felt like after the St. Louis (short oval) race, we found some good things that should carry over to Milwaukee. I’ve had some success at the Milwaukee Mile before. It’s a challenging race, and a good race typically. The second lane will hopefully come in to help the show. It’s on the low side which is a little unique for an oval because typically the second lane is the upper lane. And hopefully we can get the patches to come in (grip up) too, get things working well and put on a good show. It’s an important weekend not only because it’s a doubleheader and there are a lot of points on the line. Hy-Vee is also the title sponsor, so we want to put on a good show for them. There are only three races left, including two in Milwaukee and we want to make sure we have some strong results to finish off the end of the season.”

RACE REWIND – GRAHAM’S 2015 THIRD-PLACE FINISH AT MILWAUKEE
At the previous race at the Milwaukee Mile in 2015, Rahal entered the event fourth in the point standings after having won the previous race at California Speedway and matched his best qualifying position of the season with sixth place. In the race, he stretched his fuel the furthest of all drivers to Lap 60 to possibly utilize a three-stop strategy but the team later changed to a four pit stop strategy due to Rahal being held up in slower traffic on that stint. He maintained a top-eight position for the majority of the last half of the race and a top-five most of the final 50 laps. Rahal and a few cars around him took advantage of a late caution for Justin Wilson to pit for fresh tires in the closing stages of the race. He maintained his fifth-place position when he returned to the track and passed Ed Carpenter for fourth on a Lap 232/250 restart then passed Juan Pablo Montoya for third on Lap 235 of 250. He held his position and earned his fifth podium of the season with third place and moved into a tie for third in series standings with Helio Castroneves. It was his seventh race here.

PIETRO FITTIPALDI AT MILWAUKEE
It will be Pietro’s first time to race at this track. His grandfather, Emerson, finished second here in 1994 and finished third three times (1988, ’90, ’93). After a competitive race at World Wide Technology Raceway a few weeks ago, he is optimistic of a good weekend.
“The Milwaukee race will be an interesting one for everybody. It’s been a while since INDYCAR has been back. We had a test there a few months ago. It’s pretty hard to set up a good race car for the track. It’s a very flat oval, not very banked. The car was decent at St. Louis and we had a shot at a top-10 there so we’re hoping to replicate that in Milwaukee.”

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD AT MILWAUKEE
Lundgaard will compete in his first race here. He joined his teammates at the test in June and is looking forward to competing in another doubleheader that has title sponsorship from team sponsor Hy-Vee.
“I’m really excited for the Milwaukee races, there are a lot of points on the table. I hope to finish the season off well with Hy-Vee and with RLL and this would be a good weekend to have strong results. I’m pretty excited. Leaving Gateway, the 15 car was a lot stronger than we were, so we plan to try some of the things that made their car stronger. It’s the last short oval of the season as well so it should be fun. Let’s see if we can finish the season off on a high.”

BOBBY RAHAL AT THE MILWAUKEE MILE
Team co-owner Bobby Rahal competed in 18 IndyCar races at the Milwaukee Mile between 1982 and 1998.  His best start was pole in 1992 and best finish was second place, three times (1982, 1987, 1992).

POINTS BATTLE AFTER 14 OF 17 RACES
Heading into Round 15 & 16 at Milwaukee, Lundgaard is in 12th place in the series standings with a total of 261 points, Rahal is 16th with 227 and Fittipaldi is 20th with 156.