Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
QUALIFYING NOTES/QUOTES – July 1, 2023
RAHAL EARNED HIS FIRST FRONT ROW START AT HOME AND THE TEAM’S THIRD FOR THE HONDA 200 AT MID-OHIO; LUNDGAARD AND HARVEY TO START FIFTH AND 11TH
1) Colton Herta 1:06.3096 / 122.589 mph (Group 2, Round 3)
2) Graham Rahal 1:06.3528 / 122.509 mph (Group 2, Round 3)
5) Christian Lundgaard 1:06.6277 / 122.003 mph (Group 2, Round 3)
11) Jack Harvey 1:06.7309 / 121.815 mph (Group 1, Round 2)
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It’s a great time to get the Fifth Third Bank car up front and run it well. So obviously we’ve got a lot of laps tomorrow to keep it there. I’m so proud of everybody at RLL on the 15 of course, the 30, and the 45. Everybody has just done an amazing job of keeping our heads down in the midst of a tough season. We’ve got three cars in the top 12 again here and Christian and I went onto the Fast 6 and battle it out. I’m not going to lie; I thought it was a good lap and I knew it was solid so I was bummed to not get a pole. But it’s a heck of a lot further forward than I’m used to starting. I’m super proud of this guy Eddie (Jones, race engineer), Adam (Kolesar, performance engineer) and Mike Ciceralli (dampers) and everybody on this team who kept their heads down.
“I actually didn’t use a second set of new blacks this morning when most people did just to keep them for the Fast 6 and we ended up not using them so we’ve got tons of tire for tomorrow. But the reality is my gut felt that the pace of the reds was just far enough ahead that it’s going to be hard to get. That was a really solid lap. It wasn’t too scruffy. I thought there was maybe a little more here or there but not two more tenths or something. We only missed it by 0.04 but that’s INDYCAR racing right now. I think there’s four of us within 0.06 or 0.07. Our race pace is better than our qualifying pace so I’m excited for tomorrow.”
JACK HARVEY, 30 Permco Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Qualifying was pretty good on the whole for the team. In Q1, we felt pretty competitive. For Q2, we’re looking into why we went quite a bit slower in Q2 than Q1 which is pretty unusual. We left about a half a second of lap time so just trying to understand exactly what happened there. But, this was a huge team performance. I was about to be exceptionally happy for Graham. He was so close. I feel he doesn’t always get the respect he deserves as a driver so I was happy that he was able to go and maybe show some nay-sayers he’s still got some qualifying speed. I think on the whole it’s been a pretty good day for everyone at RLL and that’s just through unity and hard work.
“I think we’re in the fight no matter what the weather does and that will be the same for everybody if it changes then we’ve got to be proactive and quicky reactive. I think ultimately the No. 30 Permco Honda is in a good place to take advantage of what comes our way tomorrow.”
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD, No. 45 VIVID Clear RX Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It was a pretty good qualifying for the Hy-Vee VIVID Clear RX team. We got through to the Fast 6 and I honestly predicted before the session that we were going to be fourth and we ended fifth so I guess I nailed that one almost. But I’m a little disappointed. We had a radio failure in the Fast 6 where it just kept beeping. I could still hear my guys but it was beeping randomly which was a little annoying so going into high-speed corners and change of direction it was kind of scratchy. That’s a little disappointing but I’m glad for Graham to almost get a pole out here on the front row at his home track. Go Graham.”
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 (B. Herta 1997). Another front row start came in 1999 (B. Herta; 2nd) and today (G. Rahal; 2nd).
NEXT UP: Practice The race day warm-up will take place tomorrow from 10:30 – 11:00 a.m. ET and the 80-lap race will take the Green Flag at 1:53. Coverage wil begin on USA Network at 1:30 p.m. ET. Timing and Scoring information is available for all sessions from www.indycar.com and includes commentary by the INDYCAR Radio Network.