Rahal Earned His Best Start Since 2012 of Third Place for the Angie’s List GP of Indy; Pigot to Start 20th in His Second Series Race

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis

Verizon IndyCar Series

QUALIFYING NOTES/QUOTES – May 13, 2016

RAHAL EARNED HIS BEST START SINCE 2012 WITH THIRD PLACE FOR THE ANGIE’S LIST GRAND PRIX OF INDIANAPOLIS; PIGOT TO START 20TH IN HIS SECOND RACE

1)         Simon Pagenaud      1:08.6868 / 127.832 mph       (Group 2, Round 3)

3)         Graham Rahal           1:09.1816 / 126.918 mph       (Group 2, Round 3)  

20)       Spencer Pigot           1:09.4591 / 126.411 mph       (Group 2, Round 1)

GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Steak ‘n Shake Dallara/Honda/Firestone:  “This cold has definitely taken a lot out of me the last couple of days. We gave it all she had (in qualifying). It feels good to start third. Everyone at Honda has done a great job.  You can see all the hard work they have put in with three Honda’s in the Firestone Fast Six. I’m really proud of them and proud of this Steak ‘n Shake team because they just keep their heads down and keep working hard. This is our best start in a long time.  Tomorrow will be a big day for us just to gain points.  Pagenaud qualified on pole but hopefully we can out smart him tomorrow.  Our guys have done an excellent job with pit stops and they keep fighting. Penske is kind of the standard when it comes to pit stops but I think we can get them.  I think our team has been a shining light for Honda and we continue to work very hard at that.  We can win from this starting position. We need to stay out of trouble. We all know about Turn 1 in this race.  We’ve got momentum on our side and have a good run going here. I hope we can continue it in the race.”

• FAST FACTS: Earned his best start of third place for the first time since 2012 when he qualified third at Texas Motor Speedway… Will be his third Indy car race on the road course at IMS. In 2015, he finished second after starting 17th.  He moved to sixth on the opening lap after avoiding a multi-car accident and passed Filippi for fifth place on Lap 10. As others made their first pit stops he moved into the lead for laps 22-23 and gained valuable track position before he pitted at the end of Lap 23. He returned to the track in fifth place and moved into second a few laps later when three out-of-pit-sequence cars made their stops.  Leader Will Power pitted and Rahal returned to the lead on Laps 40-43 after being able to stretch his stint due to maintaining good fuel mileage compared to others. The team opted to stay on track one lap longer than previously determined before his second stop but at the pit exit Rahal closed on the car of Scott Dixon, who was returning to the track with cold tires and a heavy fuel load and slightly held up Rahal, who had a light fuel load and hot tires. Rahal pitted the next time by, at the end of Lap 43, and returned to the race in fifth place but again reclaimed second place a few laps later. While navigating lapped traffic earlier, most notably the 23rd place car of Josef Newgarden, who ran between he and Power, the gap to Power grew at times but he finally passed him after he returned to the track from his third and final stop. On Lap 63 of 82 he was -4.4 seconds behind Power but closed to -1.4 by Lap 70. He ultimately took the checkered flag 1.5 seconds behind the reigning series champion… In the inaugural Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis in 2014, Rahal started 12th, ran as high as sixth and was 11th when he was hit by Montoya on a restart on Lap 51/82 and ultimately finished 21st… His best qualifying position of the season so far is third (today) and best finish is second at Barber… He is ranked sixth in series point standings with a total of 100 and is only six points out of fifth (Kanaan, 106) .

SPENCER PIGOT, No. 16 RLL / Mi-Jack / Manitowoc Dallara/Honda/Firestone:  “We had good potential after practice.  Everything felt good but just didn’t really maximize it on the red tires. I think we have a really good race car.  I will try and stay out of trouble tomorrow on the first corner and pick them off as we can.  It’s good to have a teammate, especially one as quick as Graham is so I have a lot of great data to look at and we can compare notes about setup differences.  The great thing about having a teammate is that we can help each other.”

• FAST FACTS: Will be his second Indy car race and fifth overall race here… 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. 

RLL AT INDY ROAD COURSE…. The Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis will mark the third Verizon IndyCar Series race on the 2.439-mile road course. The team’s best finish here is second in 2015 by Rahal who also brought the team its best start of third place here today.

NEXT UP: The pre-race warm-up will take place tomorrow from 11:30-12:00 p.m. ET and ABC will begin their broadcast of the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis beginning at 3:30 PM ET.

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