Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
108th Running of the Indianapolis 500
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
FAST FRIDAY NOTES / QUOTES – May 17, 2024
FAST FRIDAY WAS THE FIRST PRACTICE DAY NOT INTERRUPTED BY WEATHER; QUALIFYING BEGINS FOR THE 108TH INDY 500 ON SATURDAY
1) Colton Herta 234.974 mph
9) Takuma Sato 233.679 mph 26th in qualifying order
18) Christian Lundgaard 232.570 mph 14th in qualifying order
29) Pietro Fittipaldi 231.586 mph 21st in qualifying order
30) Graham Rahal 231.236 mph 32nd in qualifying order
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 United Rentals Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Yeah, I thought it was a solid day. Obviously in the heat of the day we struggled a little bit but I think most everybody was. At the end there we were trying a couple of things but it’s a shame we didn’t get a clean, full run or even a full, clean lap. I think we need to find a good mile an hour feel like we’re maybe a top-15 car. I think P15-28 is going to be separated by basically nothing so it will be interesting to see how it turns out. We’re alright and we’ll be fine tomorrow. We have work ahead.”
PIETRO FITTIPALDI, No. 30 5-hour ENERGY Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We made some decent runs today. It was much hotter and the conditions were more difficult. We were just trying to have a clean run with four laps. It’s challenging. We have tried to get some consistent learning and running, we’ve been hit with some adversity. Yesterday we had some as well and then you add in the weather, it hasn’t been clean but we’re doing the best we can. The team is putting in a lot of effort. We’ll see what we get tomorrow.”
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD, No. 45 Hy-Vee Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I think it’s been a pretty good Fast Friday overall. We’ve gone through a lot of different things and found some positives. Moving forward I think the boxes are starting to be filled out. We’re still not where we want to be but we made improvements and there’s more to be happy with this year than there was last year. At the moment I think we’re pretty relaxed but we will go into tomorrow with peace of mind and just focus on optimizing the day run.”
TAKUMA SATO, No. 75 AMADA Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “At the beginning it wasn’t as smooth as we expected. We had some issues so we really couldn’t get into the program until really halfway through the day. Basically, we ran out of time at the end. However, we found some good speed which was positive. But we didn’t complete four full laps so it’s going to be challenging tomorrow. It’s going to be a little warmer than today. But we shall gather all of the data for four cars and we need to put the good things together for tomorrow.”
NEXT UP: Qualifying for the 108th Indianapolis 500 will begin at 11 AM ET tomorrow and will be televised live by Peacock.