Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
RACE NOTES/QUOTES – Sunday, February 27, 2022
RAHAL FINISHED SEVENTH, LUNDGAARD 11TH AND HARVEY 13TH IN THE FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 United Rentals Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I would say it was a solid day for us in the No. 15 United Rentals Honda. Obviously, we would have liked to get that top five ahead of Romain and get Rinus (VeeKay). I was just struggling with braking bite in the end of the race there and when I came up the inside on Rinus I just couldn’t get it to stop. I thought the boys did a good job in the pits. It was a consistent day. The balance wasn’t great today, but we battled through it. It’s a good place to start, we’ll go onto Texas from here.”
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD, No. 30 Panasonic / Shield Cleansers Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It was a long race. I think we lost quite a few positions in the beginning of the race at the start, which I wish we could’ve kept. I think we covered some ground on the first pit stop cycle which was good. We ran long on the reds which I was quite happy about. I think the pace on the reds was pretty decent, we perhaps could have gone a little quicker if we had some clean air, but we will never know. It was quite physical in the end. When we pulled out the last set of blacks, we tried to hang on. In the end I think the balance of the car was decent today, we just didn’t have the proper pace that the Penske cars had. So, I think to come home with a result like this is pretty good on our first weekend.”
JACK HARVEY, No. 45 Hy-Vee Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I think it was a pretty good day in the end there actually. I think it was a great strategy by the #45 HyVee Honda guys. I kind of made everyone’s life hard with qualifying to start 23rd and finish 13th. With minimal yellows and really tight windows, I thought it was just a great effort by the team. We have good momentum, we will build on it and get to Texas!”
NEXT UP: The XPEL 375, Round 2 of the INDYCAR SERIES Season will take place at Texas Motor Speedway on March 20. It will mark the oval racing debut of Lundgaard.