RLL Aims For Third Consecutive Road Course Pole at IMS in Saturday’s Sonsio Grand Prix

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Pre-Race Notes
Sonsio Grand Prix – Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course
Round 5 of 17 in the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES

DATE:     Friday – Saturday, May 10-11, 2024

PRACTICE BROADCAST:     Live on Peacock Premium on Friday from 9:30 – 10:45 a.m. and 1:10 – 2:10 p.m. Also live on the INDYCAR Radio Network (IRN) and www.indycar.com (timing & scoring + live analysis). All times Eastern.

QUALIFYING BROADCAST:     Live on Peacock Premium, the IRN and indycar.com timing & scoring + live analysis) from 4:20 – 5:50 p.m. ET Friday.

RACE BROADCAST:     Live on NBC on Saturday, May 11 from 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. ET. And also on Peacock Premium, IRN and Sirius XM INDYCAR Nation 218 and SiriusXM NBC Sports Audio 85.

TRACK LAYOUT:     2.439-mile, 14-turn road course
RACE LENGTH:     85 laps / 207.35 miles
2023 MAY WINNER:     Alex Palou (May 13)
2023 MAY POLESITTER:     Christian Lundgaard (1:09.4639 / 126.402 mph; May 12)
2023 AUGUST WINNER:     Scott Dixon (August 12)
2023 AUGUST POLESITTER:     Graham Rahal (1:10.1132 / 125.232 mph: August 11)

RLL TOP START / FINISH AT IMS (ROAD):     POLE – Lundgaard (May ’23), Rahal (August ’23) / 2nd by Rahal in 2015, 2020, 2023; Lundgaard in July ‘22; 15 events

RAHAL’S BEST START / FINISH AT IMS (ROAD):     1st in 2023 (August) / 2nd in 2015, 2020 & 2023; 15 events
RAHAL’S HIGHEST SERIES START/FINISH:     4 poles – Pole at St. Pete (street) 2009, Kansas (oval) 2009, Detroit Race 1 (street) 2017, IMS (road) 2023 August / 6 wins – 1st in St. Pete in 2008, Fontana & Mid-Ohio 2015, Texas 2016, Detroit Race 1 & Race 2 2017

FITTIPALDI’S BEST START / FINISH AT IMS (ROAD):     Will be his first race on the road course here
FITTIPALDI’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH:     10th at Phoenix (2018) / 9th at Portland (2018)

LUNDGAARD’S BEST START / FINISH AT IMS (ROAD):     1st in 2023 (May) / 2nd – July 2022; 5 events
LUNDGAARD’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH:     2 poles – IMS (road) May 2023, Toronto (street) 2023 / 1st at Toronto 2023

NEWS & NOTES:

RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING & THE IMS ROAD COURSE
The Sonsio Grand Prix will mark the team’s 16th NTT INDYCAR SERIES race on the 2.439-mile road course. The team’s highest finish is second by Graham Rahal in 2015, 2020 (July) and 2023 (August) and Lundgaard in 2022 (July). Lundgaard and Rahal also brought RLL their highest start of pole on the IMS road course in May 2023 (Lundgaard) and August 2023 (Rahal). In addition to Rahal (2014-2023), other drivers that have competed for the team here include Takuma Sato (2018-2021), Spencer Pigot (2016, 2020), Oriol Servia (2014), Jack Harvey (2022 x2, 2023 x2) and Christian Lundgaard (2021, 2022 x2, 2023 x2).  RLL has entered the No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Honda for Graham Rahal, the No. 30 Mi-Jack Honda for Pietro Fittipaldi and the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda for Christian Lundgaard.

RAHAL AND THE INDY ROAD COURSE
Rahal will make his 16th INDYCAR start on the road course at IMS. After a second-place finish on the road course at IMS in 2015 and 2020 (July) he hoped to breakthrough and win at IMS in August 2023 after starting from pole. He led the most laps at 36/85 but finished second to Scott Dixon in the closest INDYCAR SERIES finish ever at the IMS road course with a margin of -0.4779 to the winner. Dixon qualified 15th and spun due to an opening lap incident but utilized the early stop for repairs on Lap 5 and then chose a two-stop strategy after that which dictated fuel saving. In the closing stages, Rahal, in second, had a quicker pace than Dixon but was held up in traffic while trying to close the gap. He was also on used alternate tires for his final stint to Dixon’s new ones after flat-spotting a set in qualifying en route to pole. After getting around the lapped traffic between himself and Dixon with approx. 12 laps to go, he closed the gap from -3.5 seconds to -0.5 with a few laps to go but ultimately settled for second place with a margin of -0.4779 to the winner. In May 2023, Rahal battled from the back after opening lap contact from Kyle Kirkwood to finish 10th. Sixth place starter Kirkwood made contact with Rahal, who had pulled ahead in the first few turns of the opening lap. It sent him into other cars, and he ultimately had to pit to replace a right rear, punctured tire. A caution came out after that for two other cars, and he pit to top off before the race returned to green. He climbed into the lead for seven laps at one point and ultimately finished 10th to salvage his race. He is hoping to earn the third straight IMS road course pole for the team, after Lundgaard won the May 2023 pole, and bring home the victory.
“Coming off where we were last year, I’m excited about the Sonsio Grand Prix. Our cars should be very strong and we ought to be competitive. It’s all about putting it together, maximizing every session and hopefully continuing on what we began last year. I feel like we’ve been good on road courses this year. We’ve kind of picked up where we left off in terms of road course competitiveness, at least at Barber, which was very strong for us. At the August race in particular last year, we were very good. We started from pole and finished second. Obviously if that first yellow wasn’t eight laps long, I think we would have won that race but that’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. For us, it’s just important to continue that momentum. I feel like the Indy GP is always an event we are strong at, and so fingers crossed we can keep it going.”

FITTIPALDI AIMS TO ADD MORE LORE TO HIS FAMILY HISTORY AT IMS
The 2024 Sonsio Grand Prix will mark Fittipaldi’s first race on the road course where his grandfather, Emerson Fittipaldi, earned two Indy 500 wins (1989 and 1993). He aims to make his own mark at the iconic track. Only four of the tracks on the 2024 season are ones he has raced on but two pre-race tests have enabled him to gain recent knowledge that will assist his effort in May. On March 29, he tested the new hybrid engine on the road course at IMS and on April 10, he completed his refresher course at the Open Test for the Indy 500 on the oval. He is looking forward to his first race on the road course and getting the Month of May off to a good start.
“I’m going into the Indy Grand Prix having tested there recently with the team. It’s great because we’re able to get the ball rolling right from the get-go in Practice 1, arrive at the track with rhythm although the test that we did was with the hybrid system in the car. It’s a very nice track to drive on. It’s extremely smooth, probably one of the smoothest tracks of the calendar. I really like the Turns 4-5-6 section where you’re going through that flat-out chicane, on the limit where the car is kind of flying through the curbs. What I really like about this track as well is that a lot of the curbs are very flat so you’re able to use all of them with the car and sometimes even a little bit of the grass with your inside front wheel. It’s the type of track that when you nail the lap, it’s very satisfying. It’s very smooth and has a nice rhythm to it, especially the last sector with the esses in the back which I think is Turns 8-9-10. We absolutely want to build momentum in the month of May for the Indy 500. We had two very good races at the start of the season finishing 13th at St. Pete and made the final race at Thermal but, at the end we couldn’t finish the race, but we were in the top eight and were going to have a very strong finish there. The past two races at Long Beach and Barber, we got hit with a lot of adversity, but we want to turn that around and build momentum now for the month of May. We’re going to a road course where the team has been strong. We know we have a very fast car so it’s about executing and delivering a great result and starting the month of May the right way.”

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD AIMS TO ADD ANOTHER FIRST AT IMS
Christian returns to the road course at IMS, the site of much personal success with high expectations. He won his first career pole for the May 2023 road course race and started second to teammate Rahal in the August 2023 event – both resulting in fourth place finishes. It’s also the site of his first series podium – a second-place finish in July 2022.  In the August 2023 race, he started second to Rahal and was passed by DeFrancesco and O’Ward on the opening lap to run fourth. He repassed DeFrancesco a few laps later and ran mostly in the top four the majority of the race to take the checkered flag in that position. In May 2023, he led the majority of the first lap from pole until third-place starter Palou, on faster alternate tires to his harder, primary ones, passed for the lead into Turn 14. He regained the lead on Laps 18-19 after Palou pit. Tire strategy played an integral part and on one stint he was on used alternate tires when the race favored used or sticker primaries.  On Lap 57 he dropped from second to third when O’Ward passed him. He held the position through a stop and was passed by Ericsson on Lap 76/85 for fourth. He held off Rosenqvist until the checkered flag to maintain fourth place. In 2022, he finished ninth in the May Grand Prix and earned his first podium of second place in the July event. In that event, he earned his best start of the season at that point of sixth. In the race, he moved into fourth on the opening lap ahead of Power and O’Ward, who had an issue. He was passed by Herta before Kellett brought out a caution and passed Newgarden on the restart to regain fourth. He passed Rosenqvist for third on Lap 9 before his first stop on Lap 14. He held third through the majority of the race and claimed second place on Lap 42/85 when previous leader Herta slowed on course. In the late stages of the race, he pressured eventual winner Rossi but took the checkered flag 3.5 seconds behind him for his first series podium and a career-best finish of second place. While an FIA Formula 2 driver in 2021, Lundgaard, then 20, made his INDYCAR debut with the team at the August 14, 2021 race. After testing an Indy car for the first time with the team at Barber Motorsports Park on July 26, he had plenty of new elements to adjust to during a compressed, two-day event schedule but surprised many when he qualified fourth. He finished 12th in the race while battling food poisoning. He would like nothing better than to break through to win his first race at IMS, and second of his career, and create momentum heading into the Indy 500.
“The Grand Prix at IMS is one of the race weekends that we as a team know we’re super strong. We swept the poles there last year between Graham and myself. I think it’s the one race where we can at least experiment with things that I don’t think we’re comfortable enough doing at other tracks because we know the performance is there (at IMS) so we can make progress in that way and try out things that we can’t at other tracks and events. I look forward to it because it’s a home race but also, I think our worst qualifying there is only once out of the Fast Six, personally, so we know the pure pace is there. But we also know we need to convert that potential in the race and we haven’t quite been able to do so the past two years. Obviously only having one GP race there this year is potentially going to hurt us but it also makes it extra important for us to execute this one.”

POINT STANDINGS AFTER 4 OF 17 RACES
Heading into Round 5 of 17 at the Sonsio Grand Prix, Lundgaard is in 15th place in the series standings with a total of 48 points. Rahal is 17th with 48 and Fittipaldi is 23rd with 28.