Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix
NTT IndyCar Series
RACE 2 NOTES/QUOTES – June 2, 2019
RAHAL FINISHED SEVENTH IN DUAL TWO OF THE DETROIT GRAND PRIX DOUBLEHEADERS AFTER STARTING LAST; SATO RAN AS HIGH AS SECOND BUT FINISHED 13TH
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 United Rentals Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “The strategy to start on primary tires played out. The yellow on Lap 15 or 16 kind of hurt those of us who were on that alternate strategy though. It let the group bunch back up but starting 22nd, you have to take a flyer (on strategy). We gained 15 positions today and there is no shame in that, we had a great day. I’m awfully proud of these guys and very thankful for the 30 car guys that pitched in and made it possible for us to get out there. Everything ran smoothly so we’re pretty happy with that.”
- FAST FACTS: A gear-related issue was found immediately prior to qualifying but the team fixed that issue and was in the pits a few minutes before Round 1 began. After his first run, which put him third at the time, another gear-related issue surfaced and his time was eclipsed and he ended up 11th in the session for 22nd place start. In the race, he gained five spots on the start after a multi-car crash. Due to his starting spot, the team elected to start on the primary tires over the faster but less durable alternate ones and the decision paid off as Rahal cycled up to fifth place on Lap 2 when the majority of the field pit under caution to replace their alternate tires. Power pit for repair on Lap 5 and Rahal moved into fourth. Race leader Dixon, whose lap time dropped four seconds when his alternate tires lost their performance jumped into the pits right before a caution came out when Bourdais hit Pigot. Rahal now ran second to Ferrucci which he held until his first pit stop on Lap 31 for fuel and alternate tires. He was able to hold his ground in sixth place as the tires began to degrade and made his second stop on Lap 45 for fuel and primary tires. HE returned to the track in 10th place. He moved into 9th when Jones pit and right after that Hinchcliffe brought out the caution flag when he stopped on course. After the restart, he moved into eighth when he passed Sato, who was battling with Power, Hunter-Reay and Rossi. He moved into seventh when Rosenqvist crashed. The series red flagged the event to clear the debris and have a green-checkered flag finish and once the race restarted Rahal held seventh until the checkered flag… Was Rahal’s 14th and 15th races here. Last year, he was in second place until he lost control of his race car on the out-lap from his final stop and made hard contact with the wall in Turns 13-14 and retired in 23rd place after starting eighth. For Race 2, he started ninth and finished fifth. In 2017, Rahal was either first or second in every on-track session including qualifying and each race. In Dual 1 last year, Rahal earned his first pole since Kansas 2009 and led a dominating 55 of 70 laps en route to his fifth series victory and first ever from pole. He handily held the lead with the exception of pit cycles and built a gap of more than 13 seconds at one point before he ultimately won by a six-second margin over Scott Dixon. For Dual 2, Rahal set the second fastest time in his qualifying group 2 to Sato to start third. In the race, he passed Hunter-Reay on Lap 8 and closed the gap to pole sitter and leader Sato but could not pass. Sato pit one lap earlier than Rahal, who took the lead on Lap 23 before he made his first of two stops on Lap 24 and returned to the track behind Newgarden who was on a three-stop strategy. Once Newgarden pit on Lap 29, Rahal took over the lead and steadily built his gap to second place to 16 seconds over Sato before his second and final stop on Lap 47. He then proceeded to build an 18 second gap over second place before he caught traffic. That reduced his lead to new second place runner Newgarden to 5.5 seconds before a red flag came out for the car of Pigot, who experienced a smoky end. All race cars were stopped in pit lane for approximately 10 minutes while the track was cleared and an attempt to remove marbles was made. The race resumed with a two lap shootout and Rahal utilized his 57 seconds of Push to Pass over Newgarden’s 36 to keep the lead on the restart before he was able to pull a slight gap before the checkered flag to become the first winner of both races in Detroit. In total, he led 41 of 70 laps. His other podiums in the race came in 2014 with second place in Dual 1 and third place in Dual 2 in 2015. Overall, he has two wins, four podiums and one pole in 13 races here… Has SIX IndyCar Series wins (2008 – St. Pete street course; 2015 – Fontana Super Speedway, Mid-Ohio road course; 2016 – Texas Super Speedway; 2017 Detroit Race 1, Detroit Race 2) and THREE poles (2009 – St. Pete street course, Kansas oval; 2017 – Detroit Race 1 street) and his highest series season-ending standing is fourth place in 2015… He moved up one place to 9th in the series point standings with a total of 175 points.
TAKUMA SATO, No. 30 Mi-Jack / Panasonic Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “There were a lot of up and downs today. We had a difficult qualifying (session) today. We were a second off the pace yesterday and today was 1.2 seconds. Being eighth in our group meant I started 16th so it was a bummer. We had to experiment with a different concept in terms of setup for the race and we just hoped we would be competitive. Starting the race, I was pretty lucky. There was a huge incident in Turn 3 and I was able to avoid everything so I went from P16 to ninth immediately so that was really good. I started from the softer tire which grained heavily so we wanted to change the tire immediately after. All the strategy worked really well and on the restart I gained another position and one stage I moved up to P3. It all looked really positive but at the end of the day the speed wasn’t there so I the cars coming from in front and behind got us. Eventually we had a lot of hard battles and in the end we damaged the car, got a puncture and had to come in and finished 13th. It’s a shame that we couldn’t have a strong finish again. The team learned a lot and overall his weekend we gapped a little closer to the point leader. Hopefully we have a strong weekend in Texas.”
- FAST FACTS: Qualified 16th and was able to move into 9th after a multi-car cash on the opening lap. All but three cars in the field were on the softer, less durable alternate tires and those drivers utilized the caution period to change them for primary tires once the pits opened on Lap 2, including Sato. He returned to the track in 15th place and as other drivers such as Power encountered issues, he steadily moved up and was in 9th place when he made his second stop on Lap 17. When the race restarted from caution for Bourdais making contact with Pigot, he passed eventual second place finisher Ericsson for 11th place on Lap 21 and steadily climbed up to third by Lap 34. He took over second place on Lap 45 when race leader Dixon made a stop before he pit on Lap 46.He returned to the track in fifth place. Power pit on Lap 49 and as he returned to the track, Sato was coming by pit out and the two dueled. That enabled not only Power to pass but also Hunter-Reay and Rossi, which dropped him to seventh. He moved into sixth when Jones pit on Lap 54 but after the restart from Hinchcliffe’s stopped car, he battled with Rosenqvist and got a puncture which called for a fourth pit stop on Lap 60. He returned to the race in 16th place and moved up to 13th after Rosenqvist crashed and brought out a temporary red flag. Once the race restarted he passed Chilton and Jones to finish 13th… The 2019 races were Takuma’s 14th and 15th here. In 13 races, his best start is two poles (2014 with A.J. Foyt Racing, 2017 with Andretti Autosport), best finish is second in 2015 with AFR and he has led a total of 44 laps in three races. He started in the top-five in four of 13 races and earned three, top-five and five, top-10 finishes. Last year, He started seventh and finished fifth to earn his best finish of the season to date and begin to create some momentum that has carried through to this year. He had a minor setback with Race 2 when he started 20th and an alternate fuel strategy didn’t pay off due to timing of caution periods and other factors and he finished 17th. In 2017 he qualified third for Dual 1 and finished eighth and won pole for Race 2 and finished fourth for Andretti Autosport after leading 22 laps. And in 2012 with RLL, he qualified 12th and retired in 20th after contact. His comeback run to third place in the Indy 500 after dropping to 31st due to an issue on his first pit stop has him even more excited about continuing the momentum… Has TWO IndyCar Series wins (2013 – Long Beach street course, 2017 – Indy 500 oval) and SEVEN poles (2011 Iowa oval, Edmonton street; 2013 Houston Race 1 street; 2014 St. Pete street, Detroit Race 2 street; 2017 Detroit Race 2, Pocono oval). He dropped from fourth to fifth in series points standings with 254 points.
NEXT UP: The DXC Technology 600 at Texas Motor Speedway will take place on Saturday at June 8.