Rahal Fourth, Foster 10th and DeFrancesco 21st in Practice 1 for the Bitnile.com Grand Prix of Portland

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland

NTT INDYCAR SERIES

PRACTICE NOTES / QUOTES – August 8, 2025

RAHAL FOURTH, FOSTER 10TH AND DEFRANCESCO 21ST IN PRACTICE 1 FOR THE BITNILE.COM GRAND PRIX OF PORTLAND

1) Christian Lundgaard 58.5320 / 119.627 mph

4) Graham Rahal 59.1234 / 119.587 mph

10) Louis Foster 58.8467 / 118.987 mph

21) Devlin DeFrancesco 59.1481 / 118.381 mph

GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Hendrickson Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I feel like we’re competitive. I haven’t looked at the final time sheets much yet, but I think we’re in the hunt. I wasn’t super happy with the car to be honest; I was quite loose in a lot of places, but I felt like the lap I put together was decent. Maybe I left a tenth (of a second) or two on the table in a couple of areas (of the track) but I think we can put those together tomorrow.”

FAST FACTS: It will be the 10th overall race for Graham at PIR and eighth in the headline event. His highest NDYCAR start here is POLE in 2023 and highest finish is fifth in 2022… Last year, he qualified sixth but had a six-spot grid penalty for an unapproved engine change and started 12th. He lost two spots at the start but gained them back before a caution came out for Dixon, who had an incident with Kirkwood, which led to contact with Fittipaldi. He moved into ninth before his first of three stops and ultimately finished there… 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; 2023 – IMS road course, Portland road)… Rahal is ranked 19th in series point standings with a total of 213.

DEVLIN DEFRANCESCO, No. 30 Dogecoin Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I’m quite happy and pleased with the Dogecoin Honda on primary tires. On alternate tires, I don’t think the rear of the car is quite there yet so we’ll keep working on that. The 15 car looked really good, so we’ll take what worked for him and move on to tomorrow.”

FAST FACTS: This will mark Devlin’s third INDYCAR race at PIR. His highest start is 20th in 2023, and his highest finish is 16th in 2022 – both with Andretti Steinbrenner Racing. He’s excited for the opportunity to put all three team cars in the Fast Six again like RLL did on the IMS road course in May… Is ranked 26th in series point standings with 133.

LOUIS FOSTER, No. 45 Droplight Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It was a good session. We’ve got some good pace in the Droplight car for sure. We need to look at the data and see where we stacked up. There are definitely some improvements we can make on the car and try to come back strong tomorrow and see what we have in qualifying.”

FAST FACTS: Will make his first INDYCAR start at the track but he competed at PIR in INDY NXT and the USF Pro 2000 series and has four podiums in five events. In INDY NXT, he won from pole in 2023 and finished second from pole in 2024. In the three races at PIR in the 2022 USF Pro 2000 series, he won from pole in Race 1, finished second after starting second in Race 2 and finished sixth after starting second in Race 3. He aims to maximize the weekend and gain ground in the Rookie of the Year standings, where he holds a four-point lead over Robert Schwartzman, 172-168… Is ranked in 22nd place in the point standings with 172.

RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING AT PORTLAND … The event will mark the 19th time for RLL to compete in an INDYCAR race here. The team’s best starting position of pole here was by Bryan Herta in 1998, Max Papis in 2001 and Graham Rahal in 2023 and best finish of first place came in 2018 by Takuma Sato and in 2001 by Max Papis. RLL has earned a total of four podium finishes here (3rd – B. Rahal 1995, Herta 1998) and has led a total of 172 laps (1998: Herta, 20; 2001 Papis, 69; 2018: Sato, 25; 2021: Rahal, 36; 2023: Rahal, 21). In addition, the team competed in the Toyota Atlantic races here in 2003 (Danica Patrick, Jon Fogerty) and 2004 (Patrick and Chris Festa).

NEXT UP: Practice 2 will take place Saturday from 12:00-1:00 a.m., qualifying will take place from 2:35-4:00 p.m. and the warm-up will be 7:32-7:57 p.m. All times are eastern with live coverage on FS1 or FS2 (warm-up). The BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland will be televised live on FOX beginning at 3 PM ET Sunday, August 10.