Rahal Qualified 13th for the Bommarito 500 at Gateway Motorsports Park

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at Gateway Motorsports Park

Verizon IndyCar Series

QUALIFYING NOTES/QUOTES – August 25, 2017

RAHAL QUALIFIED 13TH FOR THE BOMMARITO 500 AT GATEWAY MOTORSPORTS PARK 

POLE:  Will Power            2-lap avg. speed of 189.642 mph      (L1: 189.709, L2: 189.575)

13th:     Graham Rahal     2-lap avg. speed of 182.830 mph      (L1: 183.091, L2: 182.571) 

GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I think the Fifth Third car has been strong in practice so far, we just didn’t trim enough for qualifying. We got too conservative. We didn’t anticipate the track gripping up like it did.  The thing was too pinned in Turns 3 and 4 and our limit was to try to make sure it was on edge there and lift in Turns 1 and 2 and we weren’t on edge at all. It was a good, solid run though.  We would have liked to have been a little bit quicker but we will focus on the hour of practice time tonight and improve for the race.”

• FAST FACTS: Will be his first Indy car race here. His top finishes this season are wins in Dual 1 and Dual 2 in Detroit and top start is pole for Detroit Dual 1… Rahal is sixth in series point standings with a total of 418. He is 76 points behind leader Josef Newgarden (494), 58 behind second place Scott Dixon (476), 54 behind third place Helio Castroneves (472), 50 behind fourth place Simon Pagenaud (468) and 34 behind fifth place Will Power (452).

RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING AT GATEWAY MOTORSPORTS PARK … The 2017 Bommarito Automotive Group 500 will mark the return of open wheel racing to the track for the first time since 2003 and will be the sixth event for the team here. The 1.25-mile oval hosted CART-sanctioned races from 1997-2000 and IRL races from 2001-2003.  The team competed in all four CART races from 1997-2000 and one of the three IRL races (2003).  The best starting position for the team of second place came in 2003 by Kenny Brack and the best finish of fifth place was in 1999 by Max Papis. Prior to 2017, the team prepared a total of 9 Indy car entries for drivers such as Bobby Rahal (1997-1998), Bryan Herta (1997-1999), Max Papis (1999-2000), and Kenny Brack (2000, 2003).  The No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Honda entry for Graham Rahal will bring that total to 10 in 2017.   

NEXT UP: The 248-lap Bommarito 500 will take the Green Flag at 9:45 p.m. ET Saturday. NBC Sports Network will begin live coverage at 9 p.m. ET.

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