Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
QUALIFYING NOTES/QUOTES – September 10, 2022
LUNDGAARD, RAHAL AND HARVEY WILL START 16TH, 19TH AND 21ST IN THE FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF MONTEREY
1) Will Power 1:11.6127 / 112.505 mph (Group 2, Round 3)
16) Christian Lundgaard 1:12.2093 / 111.579 mph (Group 2, Round 1)
19) Graham Rahal 1:12.5970 / 110.980 mph (Group 1, Round 1)
21) Jack Harvey 1:12.8366 / 110.615 mph (Group 1, Round 1)
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 United Rentals Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We’ve struggled all weekend but I was hoping to muscle it around and find some lap time and just make magic happen somehow. But when you only get one lap on reds (due to the red flag), and can’t get the tire to work to its maximum, this happens. We have struggled this season with that. We’re good in the race but that’s because we don’t use the tire in qualifying and that was the case today. We cannot generate temperature in the tire, cannot get the tire to work and therefore when you have only a one lap flyer in qualifying, we’re toast. We don’t have that card in our deck and it costs us greatly in a messy session like today.”
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD, No. 30 PeopleReady Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Obviously qualifying did not end up how we wanted. We didn’t really want to end the session as early as we did. We were very strong on the blacks and didn’t quite manage to make the reds work and I think it’s the same across the three cars. We’re struggling to switch them on and make sure we get the peak out of them. I just never felt like I had a peak in the tires. After the session now I feel like it was over before it began. It’s going to be a tough race tomorrow. We’re going to see what we can do and see if we can get a good result.”
JACK HARVEY, 45 Hy-Vee Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It was a weird session really. We had fuel to do four pushing laps so on Lap 1 I had to back off to get a gap to Scott and I didn’t even complete my second lap (before Newgarden brought out the red flag), which at the time if we had would have put us way in to the top six at that point. And then the session doesn’t get going again really. We can talk about bankers (banker laps) all the day, but it is just not a good system because it just completely ruins our weekend really. I think it’s fair to say that the first pushing lap, our tires aren’t ready to go and it’s something we’ve been talking about throughout the season but I feel confident that on Lap 2 we would have been up up there, granted maybe not the fastest in the session but I went into qualifying feeling like we could transfer (to Round 2). The balance has been getting progressively better. It’s pretty disappointing. I know that the session format is the same for everyone but that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved upon. It’s hard to make up the spots in the race because of the way this place races. Ultimately we’re going to have good race pace and have really good stops tomorrow, good in laps, good out laps and good pace. I think having good tire deg is going to make a difference and I think our was actually okay. But it’s hard from where we’re starting.”
NEXT UP: The warmup will take place tomorrow from 9:00-9:30 a.m. PT. The Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey will be televised live on NBC beginning at 3 PM ET Sunday, September 11.