Rahal Earned His Second Consecutive Fifth Place Start on a Street Course for the Honda Dealers Indy Toronto; Foster & DeFrancesco To Start 7th & 26th

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto – Streets around Exhibition Place

NTT INDYCAR SERIES

QUALIFYING NOTES / QUOTES – Saturday, July 19, 2025

RAHAL EARNED HIS SECOND CONSECUTIVE FIFTH PLACE START ON A STREET COURSE FOR THE ONTARIO HONDA DEALERS INDY TORONTO; FOSTER AND DEFRANCESCO START SEVENTH AND 26TH

1) Colton Herta 59.8320 / 107.461 mph (Group 2, Round 3)

5) Graham Rahal 1:00.8600 / 105.646 mph (Group 1, Round 3)

7) Louis Foster 1:00.6684 / 105.979 mph (Group 1, Round 2)

26) Devlin DeFrancesco 1:00.7530 / 105.832 mph (Group 2, Round 1)

GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 United Rentals Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We struggled all weekend with the United Rentals No. 15 Honda so it’s good to start fifth. In the first run we went alt, alt (alternate tires) because that’s what we felt was our only chance to get through. I was impressed with the speed the whole time. The boys did a wonderful job on the car so when we got to the Fast Six — first off we didn’t expect to get there, but maybe we should now on street courses because we were in Detroit — so we only had used alternate tires to go. Overall. it was a really good day; I love starting up front here. I’ve done it a couple of times now and hopefully tomorrow we can finally get this monkey off our back and just have a good, smooth, calm race. It would be awesome.”

FAST FACTS: This will be Graham Rahal’s 18th Indy car race here and 19th overall (Atlantic 2006) here. In 17 Indy car races, his best start of second came in 2017 with RLL and best finish of fourth came in 2022. He has three, top-five starts and eight, top-10 finishes. In 2024, he started eighth and dropped to ninth after being passed by Power on the opening lap. On Lap 25/85, he reported an issue with his steering wheel that would go blank intermittently. The device also controls shifting. The team pit early to change steering wheels but the problem persisted. He was 15th when the red flag was brought out and moved up to 13th after cars were penalized. Once the race resumed, he moved up to 10th and held the position until the checkered flag. In 2023, wet conditions in qualifying led to contact and derailed the top starting spot Rahal was on target for according to computer data, but he started 27th after losing his two fastest laps as a penalty for bringing out the red flag after hitting the wall. In the race, he avoided an opening lap crash and drove through a runoff area to avoid an impassable track to catch up to the field. Persistence paid off and he climbed to a ninth-place finish. Full results are available upon request. Rahal has qualified in the Fast Six for three of the past four road/street course races and is aiming to continue that in Toronto… 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 FIVE poles (2009 – St. Pete street course, Kansas oval; 2017 – Detroit Race 1 street; IMS (road) 2023 August, Portland (road) 2023) and his highest series season-ending standing is fourth place in 2015… He has a total of 169 points and is ranked 19th overall.

DEVLIN DEFRANCESCO, 30 HUB International Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It was a tight session but not having the running from this morning, when we had they hybrid issue in practice, really hurt us, We haven’t really done any real new tire runs this weekend. It was just a lot to claw back from before qualifying. This race can be crazy so we will just be prepared to take advantage of opportunities presented to us.”

FAST FACTS: This will mark his third INDYCAR race here. Of his two races in 2022 and 2023, his best start and finish came in his rookie season in 2022 when he qualified 12th and finished 18th. The Toronto native was born 15 weeks premature and spent the first four months of his life in an incubator at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital. He was issued last rites on multiple occasions in the event he didn’t survive. Now he and his family regularly support the hospital. He is ranked 25th in series point standings with 115.

LOUIS FOSTER, No. 45 Droplight Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We had an issue in the first round and once we fixed that, we managed to get thorough to the Fast 12. Once we were in the Fast 12, everyone had time to tune their car and make their balance good. We got one run on new tires and the balance just wasn’t that good. Had we had more time to prepare for that run and make some setup changes for that session, we should have transferred to Round 3. Seventh isn’t that bad considering though, but I just wish we had made the Fast Six.”

FAST FACTS: Foster has competed on the streets of Toronto two times in the USF Pro 2000 series, both in 2022. In the doubleheader, Foster won both poles, set the fastest lap in both races and won both races en route to the championship in his rookie season. He has been in the Firestone Fast Six shootout three of the last four times where he netted his first series pole at Road America (road), a third place start at the grand prix at IMS and sixth at Mid-Ohio. He is in 22nd place in series standings with 150.

RLL AT TORONTO: The 2025 Honda Indy Toronto will mark the 25th year of Indy car racing for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) here. The team also competed in the Atlantic Series races here in 2003 and 2004. The team won in 2023 with Christian Lundgaard, earned four second place finishes (Rahal 1992, 1994, 1995; Michel Jourdain Jr. 2003), and finished third in 1996 (B. Rahal). In total, the team has earned SIX podiums (3rd – Rahal 1996), 11 top-five’s and 24 top-10 finishes at the track. RLL’s best start is pole in 1992 by Bobby Rahal and 2023 by Christian Lundgaard.

NEXT UP: Warm-up will take place tomorrow from 8:32 – 8:57 a.m. ET. Timing and Scoring information is available for all sessions from www.indycar.com and includes commentary by the INDYCAR Radio Network. The 90-lap Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto will be air live on FOX beginning at 12 p.m. ET, Sunday, July 20.