Rahal Finished Third in the Sonsio GP; Foster Earned a Career Best 7th Place & Schumacher Was En Route to his Best Finish of 11th Before a Penalty

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Sonsio Grand Prix – Indianapolis Motor Speedway
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
RACE NOTES / QUOTES – May 9, 2026

Rahal Finished Third in the Sonsio Grand Prix; Foster Earned A Career Best Seventh Place and Schumacher Was En Route to His Best Series Finish of 11th Before a Penalty Dropped Him to 20th

GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “That was physical. I’m proud of this team. Everybody has worked awfully hard to get on track and to have two podiums this early in the year feels amazing as does doing this for Fifth Third Bank and all of our partners. We’ve just got to carry this momentum into the Indy 500 for sure. I was trying to catch (David) Malukas, but I struggled with the rear of my car a lot today. I’m sure everybody probably was similar, but I was really loose today, and, unfortunately it just didn’t happen. But great job to him. I mean, the kids just done a hell of a job, stepped right in there, and flat out performed, so it’s impressive. All around, it’s good to see Louis get his best series finish and Mick have a strong race. We’re making strides; that’s all I can say. We’re not there yet, but we’re making strides and we’ll get there.”

• FAST FACTS: Has ONE POLE (2023), two FRONT ROW STARTS and FOUR PODIUMS (2nd – 2015, 2020, 2023; 3rd – 2026) here… Rahal qualified seventh for his 18th INDYCAR start on the road course at IMS and drove to a third place finish. On the start, he managed to avoid a multi-car crash that involved Rosenqvist, Dixon, Collet and others and moved into third place. He maintained a top-five position through pit stops and ran mostly in the top-three of those on the same strategy. In the final stages of the race, he reeled in second place Malukas but was unable to pass him before the checkered flag. He moved from a pre-race 10th place rank in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES point standings to a tie for eighth place with 141 and is only seven points out of sixth place. The pit crew also regained the lead in the Firestone Pit Stop Standings with 185 points over Team Penske’s No. 2 car, who has 178.

LOUIS FOSTER, No. 45 Desnuda Organic Tequila Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It was a good race. I’m obviously super happy to be in the top 10. I hate that that’s my best finish, because of course I’d like it to be higher to honest you so there we go. I think got a little bit unfortunate and fortunate on the start not to get hit, but unfortunately had to go off course and lose 10 or so spots. We battled back and the team did a really good job on the strategy and also on the setup, The car was really, really strong in the race. We made the red tires last, which we haven’t been able to do previously. We had a few battles out there as well, which was quite a lot of fun. And we made quite a few passes today so generally I’m happy about that. I think there was more on the cards for us today a little bit. I think we probably could have been up there close with Graham, had a few other things gone our way, but at the end of the day, I’m happy with the result.”

• FAST FACTS: Foster earned his top start of the season with sixth place and also earned a career best seventh place finish after having run as high as fourth place. He dropped from sixth to 11th on the start in an attempt to avoid other cars that had made contact ahead of him. He steadily moved up the field and ran as high as fourth place to Rahal and ultimately finished seventh, for a career best result.

MICK SCHUMACHER, No. 47 ENVE Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It was a shame to end that way. We had a strong race, even with the damage that we had from the restart. I think we just managed to nurture it somehow. The team did a great, at calling me in at the right moments and stuff. Unfortunately, we had issues again on the pit road where the tire gun just didn’t work and lost a lot of track position. So, considering everything and two laps before the end, to have, for sure a P11 or P10 on the cards, yeah for some if somebody would have told me that before the race, I would have said, yeah, for sure, I’ll take it. So to finish P20 sucks, to be honest but I think there’s a lot of positives to take away and just move on to the Indy 500 which hopefully will be good for us. I’m looking forward to that now.”

• FAST FACTS: Qualified 18th and used tactical strategy to help Mick move up in the order. He was on target for a career- best finish of 11th place near the end of the race while trying to pass Ferrucci but the two made contact when Ferrucci appeared to check up in a corner. Mick served a drive through penalty for avoidable contact with one lap to go and dropped to 20th place.

NEXT UP: Opening Day for the 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 is Tuesday, May 12.