Foster and Rahal Finished 14th & 18th in the Firestone GP of St. Pete; Schumacher Collected by Contact Between Robb, Ferrucci and Turn 4 Wall

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

NTT INDYCAR SERIES

RACE NOTES / QUOTES – March 1, 2026

Foster and Rahal Finished 14th and 18th in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg; Schumacher Was Collected by Contact between Robb, Ferrucci and the Turn 4 Wall and Retired in 25th

GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We started on primary tires and went to the alternates the next two stints to finish the race with two stops. We just didn’t have the car today. Middle tire stint, I was losing the rear but the front too. The last tire stint, the rear for me was gone with about 19 laps to go. I was doing everything I could to hang on as long as I could. We’re going to keep working on it. We ran with some good guys actually, and some guys that finished up front. We just never quite put it together.”

FAST FACTS: Made his 19th start at the track from 18th place. He ran 17th on the second to last lap and was passed by Collet to take the checkered flag 19th… His best start here is pole in 2009 and best finish is a win in 2008 in his IndyCar Series debut – both history-making moments at the time as he became the youngest race winner in series history (2008), and youngest pole winner in series history (2009). Both records were eclipsed in 2019 by Colton Herta but he held them for 10 and 11 years, respectively. Overall, he has earned one top-five and seven top-10 starts here and has two top-five and seven top-10 finishes, including sixth place here in 2023. Year-by-year details are available upon request.

LOUIS FOSTER, No. 45 Droplight Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We just got a bit unlucky honestly. We started on alternates and tried to pit early on the first stint to see if we could make anything out of that strategy. We were doing well actually; we had really good pace and were in clean air. We were leading a lot of the race. Obviously other people did the same pit stop as me but we were doing a really good job I think but we just got a bit unlucky with the yellow and it ended up being a two-stop race and we were on a three-stop strategy. That’s that, really. All things considered and based on where we were last year in the race, going from P9 to P14, when we were on the wrong strategy is not a bad day to be honest. Obviously, we wanted a top-10 and we probably had to car to do it as well, but it just wasn’t our day.”

FAST FACTS: Foster qualified ninth and finished 14th. He made his NTT INDYCAR SERIES debut here in St. Pete last year from a 16th place qualifying position but was collected in an opening lap incident that also forced the retirement of 11th place starter Nolan Siegel and 13th place Will Power so he is looking to get a full INDYCAR race under his belt this weekend. In INDY NXT, Foster started on pole in St. Pete in 2023 and finished 14th and started fourth and earned a third-place podium finish in 2024. Prior to that, he competed in the Indy Pro 2000 doubleheader here in 2022 with a third-place finish in Race 1 and a second-place finish in Race 2.

MICK SCHUMACHER, No. 47 ENVE Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I saw Santino lock up and I wasn’t aware that there was another guy on the inside locking up. Sting Ray seemed like he went a little deep deeper than what was supposed to be and that led to a chain reaction unfortunately. Our real target was to finish the race, get in all the laps that we wanted. We got even less than that so. It’s very unfortunate. I’m still happy about all the knowledge we gained throughout this weekend and things we can definitely take forwards and take to Phoenix now. I’m looking ahead, not looking back and will try and understand what we could have done better on our end, qualifying maybe being one of them; we were blocked and we kind of lost a bit of our momentum and (the possibility of) being in a better pack maybe. Always when you’re starting in the back things end up being difficult and tough anyways, but I think this just made it extra difficult for us.

“I thought I would reverse this thing out of here, but the safety team jumped on a bit quicker than that and the engine was off. The AMR (Safety Team) pulled me out right away. That is one thing I have to say, the AMR (Safety Team) is doing an awesome job, creds to them. They were there instantly and that really good to know and feel that you are always supported whenever something happens. We wished we could have kept going. We had a decent enough car to drive and probably drive up the field. We felt pretty confident that we were on a good strategy and were interested to see what the others were going to do. From our side we were keen to getting this race going.

“That’s racing. It’s very unfortunate. As a team we really needed that race to get everything sorted and not have doubts going into the next event. But hey, we’ve got 17 more races to go. It’s just the first one, it’s just the start of it and I’m very excited for the rest of the season.”

FAST FACTS: Made his NTT INDYCAR SERIES debut in St. Pete from a 21st place start. Sting Ray Robb, who started 20th, ran too deep and went nose-first into the wall in Turn 4 on the opening laps. Santino Ferrucci also had the same fate and Schumacher had nowhere to go and was collected in their accident and retired in 25th place. Robb was able to continue and served a penalty for avoidable contact.

NEXT UP: The Good Ranchers 250 will take place next Saturday, March 7 at Phoenix international Raceway.