Rahal to Start 12th in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio; Schumacher Earned His Top Road Course Start of 16th and Foster 19th

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course

NTT INDYCAR SERIES

QUALIFYING NOTES / QUOTES – July 4, 2026

RAHAL AND FOSTER TO START 12TH AND 19TH IN THE HONDA INDY 200 AT MID-OHIO; SCHUMACHER EARNED HIS TOP ROAD OR STREET COURSE START OF 16TH

1) Christian Lundgaard 1:04.8396 / 125.368 mph (Group 2, Round 3)

12) Graham Rahal 1:05.4947 / 124.114 mph (Group 1, Round 2)

16) Mick Schumacher 1:05.2084 / 124.659 mph (Group 2, Round 1)

19) Louis Foster 1:06.2398 / 122.718 mph (Group 1, Round 1)

GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Ariel Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I think that we were lucky to get through the first round. All weekend, I felt like we’ve not been that strong. You know, yesterday, even this morning. There has been a lot of work that’s gone into getting us here, but, we maximized it, which is what we did at Long Beach and a couple of the others. We’ve got to have a good, clean start tomorrow and just try to keep our nose clean. I don’t think that we’re going to have blistering race pace, to be very honest. So, for me, I’m just going to try to have a good strategy day, try to keep the tires underneath us, although I think that this primary tire that Firestone brought is really good and really durable. I’m just going to see how all the pieces of the puzzle come together.”

FAST FACTS: The 2026 Honda Indy 200 will mark Rahal’s 20th Indy car race at his home track, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, the site of one of his career highlights — his win in 2015 when he led a race high 23 laps en route to victory with a 3.4-second margin over Justin Wilson. His best start is second place in 2023. He has finished in the top five, six times in his past 12 races here. In total, he has one win (2015), two podiums (2017), six top five and 11 top-10 finishes in his 19 races here including a pair of fourth place finishes in the doubleheader in 2020. In 2025, he started 20th but was collected by Newgarden when he spun on the opening lap which sent both into the gravel. He went a lap down by the time he was pulled out and received a new front wing in the pits. He ultimately finished 24th. In 2024, he set the second fastest time in Practice 2 and qualified 19th. The team utilized a three-stop strategy in the race, but it didn’t play out as an advantage and he ultimately finished 18th in a race that saw the only caution take place on the first two laps due to Dixon’s hybrid failure. In 2023, he lost pole by a mere four-hundredths of a second to Herta and matched his best INDYCAR start at home of second place. He led the race two times for two laps total and finished seventh after a slow fuel probe plug in on his first atop and an issue getting his inside rear tire on in his second. Year-by-year recaps are available upon request. He has also competed in many 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. Since Round 4 at Barber Motorsports Park, Rahal had finished third in every other race held and was only two turns away from continuing that at Round 10 at Road America until contact with Power relegated him to a 23rd place rank. He’s hoping to regain that momentum at his home race this weekend.

LOUIS FOSTER, No. 45 Droplight Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “In Practice 2, we obviously ran the reds (alternate tires) to try and help with the balance so I thought the car was decent, but once again, when we were on red tires we weren’t P1 by mile. We were P2, but around other people on blacks (primary tires). But the car was okay. I didn’t think it was that bad. But qualifying just didn’t come together. I don’t know what happened. I need to go and figure that out tonight.”

FAST FACTS: Foster will make his second INDYCAR start at this track. Last year, he made his third Firestone Fast Six appearance of the season and qualified sixth for the Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio. He held sixth place until his first stop. The field was split with some on a two-stop strategy like eventual winner Dixon, and others on a three-stop strategy. Foster stalled his car on his final stop, which lost him approx. five seconds and limited his finish to 14th place. In his two INDY NXT races here, he won in 2023 from a second-place start and started/finished second in 2024. His highest start of sixth place this season came at the Sonsio Grand Prix road course event at IMS and his highest finishes of seventh place came at the Sonsio GP and Detroit street race. He is hoping to continue that trend and earn his best finish of the season this weekend. He is ranked 18th in the point standings with 147.

MICK SCHUMACHER, No. 47 ENVE Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I think the job that we’ve done all weekend has been great, just getting me acquainted with the track having not been here before, and not having done any sim work or anything. I feel like we’ve actually been in a very decent spot considering that, and I think we can be really happy about it. But nonetheless, we always want more. And I think that being so close, it’s quite upsetting that we didn’t make it through (to Round 2) because I think we definitely had the potential for it. Being this close on the soft tire, essentially, two laps in a row just shows there was more potential in it so it’s frustrating we didn’t get there, but still happy that we managed to fight back. I think some something like 14 cars tested here and we weren’t here. So maybe we started a bit on the back foot in the initial free practice. But nonetheless, I think the job we’ve done yesterday and today has put us in a position where we were a contestant to go through into the fast 12. Now it’s all about tomorrow’s race and trying to figure out what we want to do for warm-up and then put it all together so that we have a strong race and hopefully get into the top 10 because I think we definitely have to pace for it.”

FAST FACTS: Mick set the fastest qualifying lap for the team and earned his best qualifying performance of the season on road and street courses with 16th place. The Honda Indy 200 will mark Mick Schumachers fourth road course race in the INDYCAR SERIES. His overall top finish in the series is 16th place on the oval at WWTR and his top road or street course result this season is 17th at Long Beach and Road America… He is 24th in series standings with 102.