Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio – Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
Pre-Race Notes
Round 9 of 17 in the 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES
DATE: June 30 – July 2, 2023
PRACTICE BROADCAST: Live on Peacock Premium on Friday from 3:05 – 4:20 p.m. ET, on Saturday from 9:45 – 10:45 a.m. and Sunday from 10:30 – 11:00 a.m. ET. Also live on the INDYCAR Radio Network (IRN) and www.indycar.com (timing & scoring + live analysis).
QUALIFYING BROADCAST: Live on Peacock Premium, the IRN and www.indycar.com (timing & scoring + live analysis) from 2:45 – 4:15 p.m. ET Saturday.
RACE BROADCAST: Live on USA Network on Sunday, July 2 from 1:30 – 4:00 p.m. ET. And also, on Peacock Premium, IRN, and Sirius XM 160.
TRACK LAYOUT: 2.258-mile, 13-turn road course
RACE LENGTH: 80 laps / 180.64 miles
2022 WINNER: Scott McLaughlin
2022 POLESITTER: Pato O’Ward (1:06.7054, 121.861 mph)
RAHAL’S BEST MID-OHIO START / FINISH: 4th in 2009 (NHLR) and 2017 (RLL) / 1st in 2015 with RLL; will be his 17th Indy car race here
RAHAL’S HIGHEST SERIES START / FINISH: 3 Poles – St. Pete (street) 2009, Kansas (oval) 2009, Detroit (street) 2017 / 6 Wins – St. Pete 2008, Fontana (oval; 500 miles) 2015, Mid-Ohio (road) 2015, Texas (oval) 2016; Detroit Race 1 2017, Detroit Race 2 2017
HARVEY’S BEST START / FINISH AT MID-OHIO: 5th / 7th – both in 2020 in Race 1; will be his 7th race here
HARVEY’S HIGHEST SERIES START / FINISH: 2nd – Indy GP & Road America (2020), St. Pete 2021 / 3rd at the Indy GP (2019)
LUNDGAARD’S BEST START / FINISH AT MID-OHIO: 16th / 11th – both in 2022; will be his second race here
LUNDGAARD’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH: 1st at IMS road course 2023 / 2nd at the July Indy GP 2022
RLL’S BEST START / FINISH AT MID-OHIO: Pole 1997 (Herta) / 1st 2015 (G. Rahal)
NEWS & NOTES:
BACK TO THE BEGINNING FOR RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING
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 (Herta 1997). Another front row start came in 1999 (Herta; 2nd). Prior to the 2022 event, the team prepared a total of 41 Indy car entries for drivers Bobby Rahal (1992-98), Mike Groff (1994), Raul Boesel (1995), Bryan Herta (1996-99), Max Papis (1999-2001), Jimmy Vasser (2002), Michel Jourdain Jr. (2002-03) Ryan Hunter-Reay (2007-2008), Takuma Sato (2012, 2018-20, two races in ’20, 121), James Jakes (2013), Graham Rahal (2013-2020, 2 races in ’20, ‘21), Santino Ferrucci (’21) Christian Lundgaard (2022) and Jack Harvey (2022). The team will enter the No. 15 Fifth Third Bank entry for Graham Rahal, the No. 30 Permco entry for Jack Harvey and the No. 45 Hy-Vee entry for Christian Lundgaard and will bring that total to 47 in 2023.
GRAHAM AT HOME AT MID-OHIO
The 2023 Honda Indy 200 will mark Rahal’s 17th Indy car race here. His best start is 4th in 2009 and 2017 and his best finish is his win in 2015. He has finished in the top-five six times in his past nine races here. In total, he has one win (2015), two podiums (2017), six top-five and 10 top-10’s in his 16 races here including a pair of fourth-place finishes in the doubleheader here in 2020. In 2022, he qualified 18th and finished 12th after struggling with the handling of the rear of his race car. In 2021, he started eighth and finished sixth. Year-by-year recaps are available upon request. He has also competed in other series at his home track. In addition to Indy car races here, at the age of 16 in 2005, Rahal became the youngest to claim the SCCA National Formula Atlantic championship at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs here by a dominant 43-seconds. He also competed in the Star Mazda race here in 2005 (S/F 4/9) and tested a Grand Am car here in 2007. He’s looking forward to getting back home and seeing the local support.
“I’m excited to get back to Ohio for my home race. It’s always a huge one for us every single year. I do think we made good progress on our road course package at the Indy GP. At Road America, we would have liked to be better in the race but still, I think we made some progress there and I feel confident in that and I think that we can be very, very competitive. The Honda Indy 200 always has a huge hometown feel there and we always get a great crowd there with a lot of Rahal shirts running around there. We’ve got some great surprises for people that are part of the Camping with Honda program. It’s always fun to go on a campsite tour on Saturday night, seeing everybody and throwing out the goodies and doing the things we do is super cool and I’m looking forward to that.
“Ohio is a huge INDYCAR market. If you look at TV ratings – Dayton, Cleveland and Columbus are always some of the top performers and I’m proud of that. I think my dad is a big part of that and I think Jim Trueman is a big part of that, as owner of Mid-Ohio for a long, long time. Hopefully we can continue to build on that.”
CHRISTIAN AIMS TO CONTINUE HIS COMPETITIVENESS ON ROAD COURSE AT MID-OHIO
Lundgaard earned his first series pole at the IMS road course event in May and went on to finish fourth which is his best finish to date this season. He also has a sixth-place and seventh-place finish on the Barber and Road America road courses this season, respectively. He’s hoping to add another podium finish to his second place at IMS (road course) in 2022.
“We’ve been on a roll on the road courses this year and going into Mid-Ohio, I think we will carry that momentum as well. I think we had a better car at Road America than the finishing position showed so going into the Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio, we’ll go in with some confidence and just get the job done. We’ll just show up and crack on. We’ve got some things we want to try on the Hy-Vee car there for sure. We weren’t necessarily that competitive there last year so there is room for improvement. Let’s go kick some butts.”
JACK AND THE SITE OF HIS FIRST WIN IN NORTH AMERICA
The Honda Indy 200 will mark Jack’s seventh race here. In his six previous races, his best start of fifth and best finish of seventh both came in Race 1 in 2020. In the Indy Lights series, he won from pole at Mid-Ohio in Race 1 and 2 in 2014 and started second and finished 11th in Race 1 of 2015 and started from pole and finished 10th in Race 2 that same year. After strong runs at road course this season for RLL, Jack hopes to carry the momentum over to Mid-Ohio.
“I like Mid-Ohio. I think it’s a pretty special race for the team, especially Bobby and Graham and the longtime employees of the team. Every time we go there, you certainly feel that support for us all. Mid-Ohio is the place I got my first win in North America. Even though it was in Indy Lights. I feel like we’ve always been quick there in an Indy car. I think we’ve shown this year that the road course car has been good, but it can also be up and down at times. If we hit the right window, we’ve got a car for sure that’s going to be in the top-10 so the expectation for Mid-Ohio right now has got to be to try and park our No. 30 Permco Honda into the top-10 and just have a smooth weekend. I believe it’s a realistic expectation for us this weekend.”
POINT STANDINGS AFTER 8 OF 17 RACES
Heading into Round 9 at the Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio, Lundgaard, Lundgaard has a total of 162 points and is ranked 11th overall. Rahal is 17th with 118 points and Harvey is 25th with 83.