Rahal, Foster and Schumacher Head to the Honda Indy 200 – Site of RLL’s Original Home Track — Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio – Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
Pre-Race Notes
Round 11 of 18 in the 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES

DATE:     July 3 – 5, 2026

PRACTICE BROADCAST:     Live on FS2 on Friday from 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. ET, and live on FS1 on Saturday from 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. and Sunday from 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. ET.  Also live on the INDYCAR Radio Network (IRN), www.indycar.com  (timing & scoring + live analysis) and Sirius XM INDYCAR Nation 218.

QUALIFYING BROADCAST:     Live on FS1, the IRN, www.indycar.com (timing & scoring + live analysis) and Sirius XM INDYCAR Nation 218 from 2:30 – 4:00 p.m. ET Saturday.

RACE BROADCAST:     Live on FOX on Sunday, July 5 from 12:30 – 3:00 p.m. ET. And also on the IRN, Sirius XM INDYCAR Nation 218.

TRACK LAYOUT:     2.258-mile, 13-turn road course
RACE LENGTH:     90 laps / 203.22 miles

2025 WINNER:     Scott Dixon
2025 POLESITTER:     Alex Palou (1:05.0215, 125.017 mph)

RAHAL’S BEST MID-OHIO START / FINISH:     2nd in 2023 / 1st in 2015 with RLL; will be his 20th Indy car race here
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

FOSTER’S BEST MID-OHIO START / FINISH:     6th / 14th – both in 2025; second INDYCAR race here
FOSTER’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH:     Pole at Road America 2025 / 7th (Indy GP & Detroit 2026)

SCHUMACHER’S BEST START / FINISH AT MID-OHIO:      Will be his first race here
SCHUMACHER’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH:     4th – Phoenix (oval) 2026 / 16th at WWTR (oval)

RLL’S BEST START / FINISH AT MID-OHIO:     Pole 1997 (Herta) / 1st 2015 (G. Rahal)

NEWS & NOTES:

BACK TO RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING’S ORIGINAL BASE
The 2026 Honda Indy 200 will mark the 30th Indy car event for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) at Mid-Ohio Sports Car course, near the team’s original base of Hilliard, Ohio. The team also competed in the Atlantic Series race in 2003 with Danica Patrick and has competed in ALMS races here in 2007 and from 2009-2012 and IMSA races since 2018 when the team competed in the GTLM class. The team has earned four podiums (1st – G. Rahal 2015; 3rd – B. Rahal 1997, 1998, G. Rahal 2017), 16 top-five’s and 27 top-10 finishes at the track and the highest start is pole (Herta 1997). Other front row starts came in 1999 (Herta 2nd), 2017 and 2023 (Rahal 2nd).  Prior to the 2026 event, the team prepared a total of 53 Indy car entries for drivers Bobby Rahal (1992-98), Mike Groff (1994), Raul Boesel (1995), Bryan Herta (1996-99), Max Papis (1999-2001), Jimmy Vasser (2002), Michel Jourdain Jr. (2002-03) Ryan Hunter-Reay (2007-2008), Takuma Sato (2012, 2018-20, two races in ’20, 121), James Jakes (2013), Graham Rahal (2013-2020, 2 races in ’20, ’21-25), Santino Ferrucci (’21) Christian Lundgaard (2022-24), Jack Harvey (2022-23), Pietro Fittipaldi (2024) and Devlin DeFrancesco (2025). The team will enter the No. 15 Ariel Corporation Honda for Graham Rahal, the No. 45 Droplight entry for Louis Foster and the No. 47 ENVE entry for Mick Schumacher to bring that total to 56 in 2026.

RECENT TEAM PERFORMANCE ON ROAD AND STREET COURSES
In the past five road and street courses dating back to Barber Motorsports Park in March, Graham Rahal has earned three third place finishes and was two turns away from another before contact limited him to a 23rd place rank at Road America. Foster earned career best finishes of seventh place at the Sonsio Grand Prix at IMS and the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix in May. While Schumacher’s best series finish is 16th on the WWTR oval, he has two 17th place finishes at Long Beach and Road America in his rookie season. All three drivers are looking forward to another road course race this weekend.

GRAHAM RETURNS HOME
The 2026 Honda Indy 200 will mark Rahal’s 20th Indy car race at his home track, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, the site of one of his career highlights — his win in 2015 when he led a race high 23 laps en route to victory with a 3.4-second margin over Justin Wilson. His best start is second place in 2023. He has finished in the top five, six times in his past 12 races here. In total, he has one win (2015), two podiums (2017), six top five and 11 top-10 finishes in his 19 races here including a pair of fourth place finishes in the doubleheader in 2020. In 2025, he started 20th but was collected by Newgarden when he spun on the opening lap which sent both into the gravel. He went a lap down by the time he was pulled out and received a new front wing in the pits. He ultimately finished 24th. In 2024, he set the second fastest time in Practice 2 and qualified 19th. The team utilized a three-stop strategy in the race, but it didn’t play out as an advantage and he ultimately finished 18th in a race that saw the only caution take place on the first two laps due to Dixon’s hybrid failure. In 2023, he lost pole by a mere four-hundredths of a second to Herta and matched his best INDYCAR start at home of second place. He led the race two times for two laps total and finished seventh after a slow fuel probe plug in on his first atop and an issue getting his inside rear tire on in his second. Year-by-year recaps are available upon request. He has also competed in many other series at his “home track.”  In addition to Indy car races here, at the age of 16 in 2005, Rahal became the youngest to claim the SCCA National Formula Atlantic championship at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs here by a dominant 43-seconds. He also competed in the Star Mazda race here in 2005 (S/F 4/9) and tested a Grand Am car here in 2007. Since Round 4 at Barber Motorsports Park, Rahal had finished third in every other race held and was only two turns away from continuing that at Round 10 at Road America until contact with Power relegated him to a 23rd place rank. He’s hoping to regain that momentum at his home race this weekend.  
“It was obviously disappointing not to get another podium at Road America or even a top five in general but that’s racing. We know we were on to something good there and we’re going to try to carry on that chassis setup and some of the concepts that we had there into Mid-Ohio. I hope we can have a really good performance there and put ourselves in a good spot as we go into the last part of the season here. It’s crazy to think that we’re past halfway. It’s important to keep scoring points and try to put ourselves in the top-10 as the season comes to an end. A lot of guys tested at Mid-Ohio and we didn’t. But this is a strange race track though that can change a lot from week to week, so I think it’s important still to go there on the race weekend and put our setup on that we think is going to work. We’ve had some success there although last year we struggled a little bit but only a few years ago we started on the front row so we’ve had some opportunity. Hopefully we can just make it happen at home.
“This is going to be a huge weekend since it’s the Fourth of July and the 250th anniversary. We’re going to have a great car out there with Ariel Corporation and a really sweet livery that was designed by 15 Digital that I’m very proud of. We’ve got a nice little ode to Ohio on the rear wing as well and I’ll have a cool American helmet. I’m excited for the weekend. It’s a big one for me.”

ARIEL CORPORATION TO BE PRIMARY SPONSOR OF THE NO. 15 ENTRY
Mount Vernon, Ohio-based Ariel Corporation is the leading manufacturer of reciprocating gas compressors in the global energy industry. Since 1966, over 70,000 Ariel compressors have been deployed to extract, process, transport, store, and distribute industrial gases across various applications, including Upstream, Midstream, Downstream, CNG, RNG, Hydrogen, and CO2. As a top-tier manufacturer, Ariel sets the standard in the industry through expert design and manufacturing, cutting-edge research and development, and exceptional customer support. Ariel compressors operate in 100+ countries and there are 700+ worldwide distributor locations. The Ariel logo has been present on Rahal’s race car this season and this will be their first time in the primary sponsor position.

FOSTER AT MID-OHIO
Foster will make his second INDYCAR start at this track. Last year, he made his third Firestone Fast Six appearance of the season and qualified sixth for the Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio. He held sixth place until his first stop. The field was split with some on a two-stop strategy like eventual winner Dixon, and others on a three-stop strategy. Foster stalled his car on his final stop, which lost him approx. five seconds and limited his finish to 14th place. In his two INDY NXT races here, he won in 2023 from a second-place start and started/finished second in 2024. His highest start of sixth place this season came at the Sonsio Grand Prix road course event at IMS and his highest finishes of seventh place came at the Sonsio GP and Detroit street race. He is hoping to continue that trend and earn his best finish of the season this weekend.
“We’ve had some good performances at road and street courses this season. Obviously, it’s where we are stronger. Mid-Ohio last year was actually quite a good weekend for us. I would say it was honestly our best weekend of the season, pace-wise. We just didn’t execute well enough to be able to get a super strong result there. I think we have a decent package going in and we managed to scrap together a result at Road America and I hope that we’ve learned from mistakes that we made there and we can move forward as a team.
“I would say the esses at the back are the most challenging. It gets very fatiguing during the race physically and it’s also difficult to manage tires through there in the race as they as they fall off, especially with heavy fuel loads, so that is the most challenging part of the track for me. Obviously, it’s the Fourth of July this weekend and it’s the 250th anniversary. I’m looking forward to the celebration and special atmosphere. It’s always a fun weekend in Ohio for the Fourth of July.
“It’s going to be a hot weekend, and I’ve already started preparing for that. I think it’s nice that it’s already hot so I’m already getting a bit acclimatized to it. But I’m definitely going to go and do some runs and some sauna sessions before I get there and try to get my body prepared for the weekend because it’s going to be a hot one and you need to make sure your body is acclimatized and stay well hydrated throughout the week. It all adds up.”

SCHUMACHER AT MID-OHIO
The Honda Indy 200 will mark Mick Schumacher’s fourth road course race in the INDYCAR SERIES. His overall top finish in the series is 16th place on the oval at WWTR and his top road or street course result this season is 17th at Long Beach and Road America. He is looking forward to experiencing a place that is so special to the Rahal family.
“It’s great to go to Mid-Ohio, the home track of RLL in many ways. I’m excited to see what hidden gems Graham and Bobby have to show us or tell us about when we’re off track. I’m very excited about experiencing the course. It’s one of those flowing, very up and down roller coaster type racetracks so I’m very excited to experience that. It’s going to be my first time there and with preparation being pretty minimal, just on my SIM at home, we hope to able to manage what we get.
“Road America wasn’t too bad so hopefully we’ll be able to keep the momentum going with Todd (Malloy) as the race engineer now. He is obviously awfully experienced at Mid-Ohio so that’s a good add on to the team. I’m excited to work with him more closely. Obviously, I have been working with him all year but in a different position so it’s good to have him on board.
“A hot race is always a tough one but luckily, we’ve got the cool suit which should keep us nice and chilled throughout the race but also throughout the weekend, we just need to make sure that the AC works. Detroit was one of the races where it was so hot and the air-conditioning seemed like it was struggling a little bit. Joking aside, it’ll be good to just stay cool and take it step by step. I’m looking forward to this one. It’s a great race track and a great place to go to since it’s a home race for the Rahal family. I’m excited to see what we can do.”

POINT STANDINGS AFTER 10 OF 18 RACES
Heading into Round 11 at the Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio, Rahal is ranked 12th overall, with 211 points. He is only 11 points out of the top-10. Foster is 18th with 147 points and Schumacher is 24th with 102.

SECOND PLACE – FIRESTONE PIT STOP CHALLENGE
After the conclusion of the Road America race, the No. 15 crew maintained its second-place rank in the Firestone Pit Stop Standings to Scott Dixon’s No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing crew but the gap increased from one point to 21 (289-268) after 10 of 18 races.