Lundgaard Fifth Fastest in Practice 1 for the Big Machine Music City GP; Rahal and Harvey 15th and 21st

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Big Machine Music City Grand Prix
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
PRACTICE NOTES/QUOTES – August 4, 2023

LUNDGAARD WAS FIFTH FASTEST IN PRACTICE 1 FOR THE BIG MACHINE MUSIC CITY GRAND PRIX OF NASHVILLE; RAHAL AND HARVEY WERE 15TH AND 21ST

1)           Will Power                       1:16.4042 / 98.947 mph
5)           Christian Lundgaard    1:16.9262 / 98.276 mph
15)        Graham Rahal                1:17.8201 / 97.147 mph
21)        Jack Harvey                    1:18.1597 / 97.725 mph

GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I thought we were decent in practice. After the first runs, we were in the top 6-7-8 there for a while. A bunch of guys went a little quicker as the session went on but it was a shame that we didn’t get a clear lap on the alternate tire. I don’t know what it (typically faster alternate tire) had in it. Some guys went a lot quicker; some guys went no quicker. We had an axle boot issue too which is abnormal. We will see what the Fifth Third Bank Honda has in it tomorrow.”

• FAST FACTS: In the inaugural race in 2021, Rahal finished fifth after starting 13th. Last year, he started 9th and ran 10th until the pit cycle started. After his first stop on Lap 23/80 during a FCC for Castroneves, who spun, he was running 10th when the field checked up ahead of him and O’Ward ran into Power and Rahal ran into O’Ward. He damaged his front wing and was dragging it under the front of this car until he made it back to the pits. The team replaced the wing and he returned to the track but hit the wall at the end of pit out. The crew took the car behind the pits to repair the front and rear suspension on the right side due to the high number of incidents and potential to gain valuable points if able to continue. Once he was back on track, the car was bottoming and he hit the wall on the bridge and ultimately retired from the race in 23rd… 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 is in 16th place in series point standings with a total of 182.

JACK HARVEY, 45 Kustom Entertainment Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We started out with a ton of bottoming and that kind of hurt the first few runs so I wasn’t super happy with that. On the alternate tires, we hit a little bit of traffic with Josef I guess. It’s going to be fine. Our setup is nothing to write home about yet but not awful so we will see.”

• FAST FACTS: It will be Harvey’s third race here. Last year, he started 11th and took the checkered flag in ninth place but was given a post-race penalty for avoidable contact with Pagenaud and dropped one position. In the inaugural race in 2021, Harvey qualified sixth and finished 15th in an eventful race that saw an eight-car pileup and was later red-flagged and ultimately won by Ericsson, who brought out an early-race caution and had to go to the back of the field. In 2021, he qualified sixth and finished 15th… He is ranked 23rd with 124 points.  

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD, No. 45 Hy-Vee Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Being one of the first cars out on track, we obviously expected the track to be slippery. But at the end we were still competitive but we should’ve been more competitive. We didn’t really get our lap on the (alternate) greens when we should have. The lap before, I think, was 4/10ths up on the lap I ended up doing but I had (Scott) McLaughlin sideways down in Turn 4 so it wasn’t going to be that lap (that was his fastest). But I do think we’re competitive and we carried over from last year. It’s looking good for the Hy-Vee team.”

• FAST FACTS: Arrived to Nashville for his second race here as the winner of the previous street race in Toronto on July 16. Last year, he earned his top starting position to date with third place and was passed by Palou on the start to run fourth. He made his first stop from second place on Lap 23 under caution and ran in the top-10 for the next stint as there were some drivers on a different pit stop strategy. When Rahal and Veekay brought out the caution from Laps 52-55, many jumped in the pits and Lundgaard cycled into third place. He ran his best lap of the race on Lap 60 of 80 from third place and took over second when Newgarden had to pit for fuel on Lap 66. He held second through one restart but dropped to third place on Lap 76/80 when McLaughlin passed him. A red flag came out for nearly 12 minutes when Grosjean crashed and on the restart on Lap 78/80, Lundgaard dropped from third to eighth place.  … He is 9th place in the point standings with 275.

RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING IN NASHVILLE… The Music City Grand Prix will mark the third event for the team here. The team’s highest finish here is fifth place by Rahal and highest start is third by Lundgaard last year.

NEXT UP:  Practice 2 will take place tomorrow from 11:40 – 12:40 p.m. ET and qualifying will be 2:45 – 4:15. The race warm-up will take place from 6:25 – 6:55 p.m. ET.   All sessions will air on Peacock Premium and Sunday’s race will also air on NBC at 12 PM ET. Timing and Scoring information is available for all sessions from www.indycar.com and includes commentary by the INDYCAR Radio Network.