Lundgaard, Harvey & Rahal Happy With Progress in Practice 1 for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
PRACTICE NOTES/QUOTES – June 30, 2023

LUNDGAARD, HARVEY AND RAHAL HAPPY WITH PROGRESS IN PRACTICE 1 FOR THE HONDA INDY 200 AT MID-OHIO

1)           Pato O’Ward                   1:06.4935 / 122.250 mph             
4)           Christian Lundgaard    1:07.0262 / 121.278 mph             
11)        Jack Harvey                    1:07.2674 / 120.843 mph             
19)        Graham Rahal                1:07.6082 / 120.234 mph

GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Practice 1 is done here at Mid-Ohio and it was a P19 for us which is not indicative of our pace. Unfortunately, on the reds we never got a lap to try to move up the time sheets though. Our fastest lap was on old blacks (primary Firestone tires) so I think we’ve got eight-tenths (of a second) to 9/10ths of speed in us. Even on the old reds, when they were already gone, we were still on a lap that was six-tenths up so I think we’ve got a lot of pace there we’ve just got to put it together in the Fifth Third Bank car tomorrow and hopefully Mother Nature holds off.”

• FAST FACTS: The 2023 Honda Indy 200 will mark Rahal’s 17th Indy car race here. His best start is 4th in 2009 and 2017 and his best finish is his win in 2015. He has finished in the top-five six times in his past nine races here. In total, he has one win (2015), two podiums (2017), six top-five and 10 top-10’s in his 16 races here including a pair of fourth-place finishes in the doubleheader here in 2020.  In 2022, he qualified 18th and finished 12th after struggling with the handling of the rear of his race car. In 2021, he started eighth and finished sixth. Year-by-year recaps are available upon request. He also has competed in many series here. In addition to Indy car races here, at the age of 16 in 2005, Rahal became the youngest to claim the SCCA National Formula Atlantic championship at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs here by a dominant 43-seconds.  He also competed in the Star Mazda race here in 2005 (S/F 4/9) and tested a Grand Am car here in 2007… 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 17th in series point standings with a total of 118.

JACK HARVEY, 30 Permco Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I think the No. 30 Permco car looks pretty decent to start with. A couple of tenths would put us right into the top five so we’re going to go try and find them tonight but the car looks good on track. It feels okay and there are a few changes we’re going to try and make to improve it but on the whole, it’s a nice start here at the nostalgic home race of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.”

• FAST FACTS: The Honda Indy 200 will mark Jack’s seventh race here. In his six previous races, his best start of fifth and best finish of seventh both came in Race 1 in 2020. In the Indy Lights series, he won from pole at Mid-Ohio in Race 1 and 2 in 2014 and started second and finished 11th in Race 1 of 2015 and started from pole and finished 10th in Race 2 that same year. The team made good progress at the previous race at Road America and Jack hopes to carry the momentum over to Mid-Ohio. He is 25th in series standings with 83.  

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD, No. 45 VIVID Clear RX: “We’ve made progress here since last year. I think the green VIVID Clear RX car is fast. We proved that at Road America; I think we were P4 in Practice 1 so we’re starting the weekend well. We tested a lot of things this session so we are pretty satisfied. We’re making progress; we’ve been competitive at all road courses so its good to keep the momentum going on the road courses and see if we can get a good result here this weekend.”

• FAST FACTS: This is Lundgaard’s second race here. He started 16th last year and finished 11th. Earlier this season, he earned his first series pole at the IMS road course event and went on to finish fourth which is his best finish to date this season. He also has a sixth-place and seventh-place finish on the Barber and Road America road courses this season, respectively.  His best series finish overall is second place, also at the IMS road course, in  ‘22… He is ranked 11th in the point standings with 162.

RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING AT MID-OHIO … The 2023 Honda Indy 200 will mark the 27th Indy car event for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) at Mid-Ohio Sports Car course, near the team’s original base of Hilliard, Ohio. The team also competed in the Atlantic Series race in 2003 with Danica Patrick and has competed in ALMS races here in 2007 and from 2009-2012 and IMSA races since 2018.  The team has earned four podiums (1st – G. Rahal 2015; 3rd – B. Rahal 1997, 1998, G. Rahal 2017), 15 top-five’s and 24 top-10 finishes at the track and the highest start is pole (Herta 1997).  Another front row start came in 1999 (Herta; 2nd).

NEXT UP:  Practice 2 will take place tomorrow from 9:45 – 10:45 a.m. ET and qualifying will be 2:45 – 4:15.  Both will air on Peacock.  Timing and Scoring information is available for all sessions from www.indycar.com and includes commentary by the INDYCAR Radio Network.