Rahal, DeFrancesco and Foster Aim to Continue Road Course Momentum at the Java House GP of Monterey at Laguna Seca

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Java House Grand Prix of Monterey – WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
Pre-Race Notes
Round 14 of 17 in the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES

DATE:     July 25-27, 2025

PRACTICE BROADCAST:     Live on FS2 on Friday from 5:00–6:30 p.m. ET, live FS1 on Saturday from 11:30-12:30 p.m. ET and Sunday from 12:00 – 12:30 p.m. ET. Also live on the INDYCAR Radio Network (IRN) and www.indycar.com (timing & scoring + live analysis).

QUALIFYING BROADCAST:     Live on FS1, the IRN and www.indycar.com (timing & scoring + live analysis) from 2:30-4:00 p.m. ET Saturday.

RACE BROADCAST:     Live on FOX on Sunday, July 27 from 3:00 – 5:30 p.m. ET. And also on the IRN, Sirius XM 160 and the INDYCAR App.

TRACK LAYOUT:     2.258-mile, 11-turn road course
RACE LENGTH:     95 laps / 214.51 miles

2024 WINNER:     Alex Palou
2024 POLESITTER:     Alex Palou (1:07.1465 / 119.988 mph) 

RAHAL’S BEST LAGUNA SECA START / FINISH:     8th in 2019 / 4th in 2021; will be his sixth INDYCAR race here
RAHAL’S HIGHEST SERIES START/FINISH:     5 poles – Pole at St. Pete (street) 2009, Kansas (oval) 2009, Detroit Race 1 (street) 2017, IMS (road) 2023 August, Portland (road) / 6 wins – 1st in St. Pete in 2008, Fontana & Mid-Ohio 2015, Texas 2016, Detroit Race 1 & Race 2 2017

DEFRANCESCO’S BEST LAGUNA SECA START / FINISH:     20th / 15th – both in 2022; will be his third INDYCAR race here
DEFRANCESCO’S HIGHEST SERIES START / FINISH:     5th at the IMS road course (August 2023, 2025) / 11th at Indy 500 (2025)

FOSTER’S BEST LAGUNA SECA START / FINISH:     First INDYCAR race here; 1st / 1st – both races of the 2024 INDY NXT doubleheader
FOSTER’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH:     Pole at Road America 2025 / 11th (Indy GP and Road America 2025)

RLL’S HIGHEST LAGUNA INDYCAR START / FINISH:     3 Indy Car Poles – 1997-1999 (Herta) / 3 Indy Car Wins – 1998-1999 (Herta), 2001 (Papis) / 6 Indy Car Podiums

NEWS & NOTES:

RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING AT THEIR WINNINGEST TRACK
The 2025 Java House Grand Prix of Monterey will mark the 18th Indy car event for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and fifth here since 12 consecutive races at the track from 1992-2003. The team has also competed in ALMS and IMSA races here from 2009-present as BMW M Team RLL and has earned three wins, four poles (including this May) and a total of 11 podium finishes to date – including a second-place finish from pole in 2019. The Indy car team has earned three wins, three poles and a total of six podiums (1st – Herta 1998-1999; Papis 2001; 2nd – Herta 1996; 3rd: B. Rahal 1992, Papis 1999) including three straight pole positions (Herta 1997-1999).  Prior to the 2024 event, the team prepared a total of 34 Indy car entries for drivers Bobby Rahal (1992-98), Mike Groff (1994), Raul Boesel (1995), Bryan Herta (1996-99), Max Papis (1999-2001), Kenny Brack (2000-2001), Jimmy Vasser (2002), Michel Jourdain Jr. (2002-03), Graham Rahal (2019, 2021-22), Takuma Sato (2019, 2021), Oliver Askew (2021), Jack Harvey (2022), Christian Lundgaard (2022-23), Juri Vips (2023) and Pietro Fittipaldi (2024). The No. 15 WWEX entry for Graham Rahal, the No. 30 M-Jack entry for Devlin DeFrancesco and No. 45 Droplight entry for Louis Foster will bring the Indy car total to 40 entries in 2025.

RECENT TEAM PERFORMANCE ON ROAD AND STREET COURSES
In the previous five events on road and street courses, RLL was the only team to have all three cars in the Firestone Fast Six at the Sonsio Grand Prix at IMS (2nd – Rahal; 3rd – Foster; 5th – DeFrancesco), was in the Fast Six on the streets of Detroit when Rahal qualified fifth, was the only team to put multiple cars in the Fast Six at Road America when Foster won his maiden pole and Rahal qualified sixth, was in the Fast Six with Foster at Mid-Ohio and Rahal qualified fifth at Toronto. In total, Rahal is one of only six drivers to have been in the Fast Six four or more times, Foster has been in it three times and DeFrancesco once.

GRAHAM RAHAL AT LAGUNA SECA
The 2025 race will mark the sixth for Graham Rahal at the track. After competitive runs on road and street courses this season, Rahal is to turn his luck around at Laguna Seca after ending the past two races here early. In 2024, he started 19th and was in 16th on Lap 86/95 when Canapino hit Simpson, who was turned sideways on the track right in front of Rahal, who had no choice but to T-bone him. In 2023, he was collected in an opening lap incident and retired in 27th place after starting 10th. In qualifying, he was seventh fastest in his group and failed to progress to Round 2 by less than 1/10th of a second. Four cars ahead of Rahal served a grid penalty so he started 10th. In 2022, he started on primary tires from 19th place and steadily climbed his way up the field. A pivotal decision came when the team opted to take on used alternate tires on his second stop compared to Lundgaard, who took on primary tires and ultimately finished fifth. The two had been running together with Rahal ahead in seventh place initially but the two swapped positions on Lap 57/95 and he fell four positions before the team elected to stop again for primary tires on Lap 61. He ultimately finished 18th, one lap down to the leaders. In 2021, Rahal started 12th and ran as high as fourth before his first stop on Lap 18/95. The handling of his race car was better halfway through his second stint, and he gained a few spots before he made his second stop from third place on Lap 40. He pit from second place for his third stop on Lap 67 and was able to leapfrog O’Ward by staying out longer. He held third place for 11 laps before Grosjean, whose tires had six less laps on them, passed him on Lap 84/95 and he held on to finish fourth.  In 2019, he started eighth and lost two positions on the start to Hunter-Reay and Ferrucci. He dropped to 11th on Lap 5 when Rosenqvist passed him and cycled as high as fifth place before his second pit stop on Lap 39. He ran 10th for the majority of his next stint before his third and final stop and came out 11th. He later lost a position to Hunter-Reay on Lap 68 of 90 and ultimately took the checkered flag 12th. He has qualified in the Firestone Fast Six five out of the previous six opportunities and hopes to carry that momentum to a track that the team has had the most success on over the years.  
“I’m excited to get to Laguna Seca. We had a good finish in Toronto and another Fast Six qualifying and need to carry this momentum forward. The expectations are high; I feel like we should be very strong. We have a list of test items we want to try on Friday, and we’ll see what we get. We have two road courses coming up and we need to keep chugging, get good starting spots and execute for a good finish. We were on pole at Portland a couple of years ago so we hope that will be a strong one for us too.”

DEFRANCESCO AT LAGUNA SECA
Devlin will make his third INDYCAR SERIES start at Laguna Seca. His highest starting position here is 20th in 2022, and his highest finish is 15th in the same year. He also ran an Indy Lights doubleheader there in 2021 where his best start was 7th and best finish is 8th. He matched his career best start of fifth place on the road course at IMS in May and has shown pace at other road and street courses, so he hopes to replicate that at Laguna Seca.
“Laguna is a crazy and fun track. Thinking about our strengths as a group, we seem to be very fast on the smooth road courses this year. Our road course package is up there with the best of them. I’m looking forward to going back. It’s a very high-speed course and the undulation is always tricky. We have strong road course cars so we should be fighting at the front.”

FOSTER AIMS TO BACK UP POLE WINNING PERFORMANCE ON A ROAD COURSE
Having earned his first series pole at Road America, two road course races ago, Louis is looking forward to his INDYCAR debut on this road course. He has competed here four times in the INDY NXT Series where he won both NXT races in 2024 from pole. In his first two NXT races here in 2023, he qualified sixth and finished 18th in Race 1 and turned that into a podium performance with a third-place finish from a third place start in Race 2. He is the only rookie to have made it to the Firestone Fast Six – the qualifying format for road and street course races — and has done so three times (Indy, Road America, Mid-Ohio). He is hoping to add more to his season.
“I love WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. My second test with RLL was there last December. I like the track and the area. It’s a fun track and hard to get right. It’s quite high commitment as well. I think we should be good there. We’ve been really fast on the road courses. On the street courses, we’ve been good, not great, but on the road courses we’ve had some really strong pace. We’ll see what happens when we get there but I don’t see a reason why we shouldn’t be fighting for more appearances in the Fast Six.”

FOSTER ON THE TIE FOR ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
“Obviously, yes, for sure I’m thinking about that in the back of my head and where Robert is in relation to my standings. If we’re having a bad race but I’m still ahead of him, I’m thinking ‘well at least there is that.’ At the end of the day, it’s definitely something we want to win but I feel like it’s something that with the pace that we’ve had shouldn’t really be a question. We’re focusing a lot higher than that right now; we’re looking at the big picture, but we want to make sure we finish the races and wrap that up.”

BOBBY RAHAL AT LAGUNA SECA – 11 MAJOR WINS OVER HIS CAREER AS A DRIVER AND TEAM OWNER
Bobby Rahal captured his first major race win at Laguna Seca in the Can Am series in 1979 so it’s only fitting that the track has become the most successful for RLL overall as a team. After that Can Am win, Rahal went on to become the only driver to win four straight Indy car wins at the track from 1984-1987, the 1985 win coming from pole. A third place in 1992 brought him his fifth podium finish at the track. In terms of Indy car history at Laguna Seca, in 22 races from 1983-2004, the most wins other drivers have is two (Danny Sullivan 1988, 1990), Michael Andretti (1991-92), Paul Tracy (1993-94), Bryan Herta with RLL (1998-99), Patrick Carpentier (2003-04).

POINTS BATTLE AFTER 13 OF 17 RACES
Heading into Round 14 of 17 at the Java House Grand Prix of Monterey, Rahal is in 20th place in the point standings with a total of 195. Foster is 23rd with 159 and DeFrancesco is 26th with 123.  Foster is tied with Robert Schwartzman in the Rookie of the Year standings with four races to go.