Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix
Round 4 of 17 in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES
RACE NOTES/QUOTES – Sunday, April 30, 2023
LUNDGAARD FINISHED SIXTH IN THE CHILDREN’S OF ALABAMA INDY GRAND PRIX; RAHAL AND HARVEY 17TH AND 24TH
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 One Cure Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We set out to do a two-stop strategy and the yellow flag came at a weird time and forced our and not going to a three-stop strategy. We got in the pit right before they closed due to the caution and unfortunately it reset us to the back of the pack. So, I had to make sme moves and get by guys. Its frustrating to have to do that. At the end of the day, we really struggled with the rear of the car during the race. I guess our fast lap pace easn’t that far off; it was the quickest of our team by about six-tenths of a second or so but I think compared to the winning team, it’s a half a second off. I was driving my tail off, but we need a little more pace. We have to reset and hope to come back at the GMR Grand Prix a little stronger.”
JACK HARVEY, No. 30 AMADA Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Pre-race strategy was to try to do two stops (versus three) and we executed it pretty-well but that clearly wasn’t the strategy to be on today with the way the race played out. There was one moment when I was battling with Graham and I guess he pitted and, in hindsight, we should have done the same. The guys were saying our pace was pretty similar to him and in the end he was 17th and I was 24th. There was a bit of congestion by the museum on Lap 1. By the time you get there and the accordion effect has happened, Helio and I came together and it damaged my wing.”
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD, No. 45 Hy-Vee Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We had a good start and the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda guys had some of the best stops we’ve had all season. We’ve got to take the positives from this weekend; we started sixth. We took a big step forward. Just looking at my overtake (Dixon), these were the kind of moves that we had to get done today. I knew I had to be aggressive. My dad told me ‘Think about driving and what you enjoyed growing up’ and that was racing hard and I did that today.”
NEXT UP: The GMR Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway will take place on Saturday, May 13.