Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach
Round 4 of 17 in the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series
PRACTICE NOTES/QUOTES – Friday, April 12, 2019
RAHAL SEVENTH FASTEST IN PRACTICE FOR THE ACURA GRAND PRIX OF LONG BEACH AND SATO 18TH
1) Scott Dixon 1:07.7940 / 104.505 mph
7) Graham Rahal 1:08.1289 / 103.991 mph
18) Takuma Sato 1:08.6274 / 102.236 mph
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 TOTAL Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It was a decent day for the TOTAL team. I think in the end our pace is okay. I think we’ve got to find a couple of tenths to be comfortable. We probably could match what the top guys did. We caught a little traffic on our first lap on reds and just didn’t get it all. We had to bail out of the second lap too which hurt us so we did our best time on our third lap and it wasn’t a pretty lap. I think we’re competitive but like always it’s going to be super, super tight. We finished seventh and were only a couple of tenths off. We’ve just got to keep digging and try to find a little more.”
TAKUMA SATO, No. 30 Mi-Jack / Panasonic Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “The view from pit out is quite good. Being there should be a good advantage for the race. It was a tough day. We did try a couple of different directions. Graham and I split the workload but it feels like we are a step behind at the moment and trying to catch up. We’re learning all the time how to do a proper back-to-back. There is a lot of work to be done tonight.”
3 POLES, 6 PODIUMS FOR RLL IN 19 INDY CAR RACES AT LONG BEACH: This marks the 20th time for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) to compete in the main event. In total, the team has won three poles (Herta 1998, Vasser 2002, Jourdain, Jr. 2003); made five front row starts including an all-Team Rahal front row in 1998 (2nd – Rahal 1998, Brack 2001); earned their best finish of second place four times (Rahal 1992-1993, Vasser 2002, G. Rahal 2013) and earned six podiums here (2nd – Rahal 1992-1993, Vasser 2002 & G. Rahal 2013; 3rd – Herta 1998-1999). Although the team didn’t compete in Indy car races here from 2004-2011 while they fielded a fulltime entry in the Indy Racing League (2004-2008), they did compete in the 2003 and 2004 Atlantic races with Danica Patrick and in the 2007 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) race. In 2009, the team returned to the streets of Long Beach in the GTLM class of the ALMS with BMW Team RLL and has finished on the podium each year but 2016-2018 although they started from pole in 2016 and led in 2017 and 2018 before issues. Despite not finishing on the podium the past three years, Long Beach is the most successful venue for the team on the current IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship schedule. The team has won the race three times (2011, 2013 and 2015), has eight podium finishes and started from pole five out of 10 years.
NEXT UP: Practice will take place Saturday morning from 9:00-9:45 a.m. PDT and qualifying will take place from 12:10-1:25 PM PDT. NBCSN will begin live coverage of qualifying at 2:45 p.m. EDT Saturday. Timing and Scoring information is available for all sessions from www.indycar.com. The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will be televised live on NBCSN beginning at 4:00 p.m. ET Sunday, April 14.