RLL Aims to Continue Recent Road Course Performance at Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at their Original Home Track in Mid-Ohio

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio – Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
Pre-Race Notes
Round 10 of 17 in the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES

DATE:     July 4-6, 2025

PRACTICE BROADCAST:     Live on FS2 on Friday from 4:30 – 6:00 p.m. ET, on Saturday from 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. on FS1 and Sunday from 9:30 – 10:00 a.m. ET on FS1.  Also live on the INDYCAR Radio Network (IRN) and www.indycar.com (timing & scoring + live analysis).

QUALIFYING BROADCAST:     Live on FS1, the IRN and www.indycar.com (timing & scoring + live analysis) from 2:30 – 4:00 p.m. ET Saturday.

RACE BROADCAST:     Live on FOX on Sunday, July 6 from 1:00 – 3:30 p.m. ET. And also on the IRN and Sirius XM INDYCAR Nation 218.

TRACK LAYOUT:     2.258-mile, 13-turn road course
RACE LENGTH:     80 laps / 180.64 miles

2024 WINNER:     Pato O’Ward
2024 POLESITTER:     Alex Palou (1:05.3511, 124.387 mph)

RAHAL’S BEST MID-OHIO START / FINISH:     4th in 2009 (NHLR) and 2017 (RLL) / 1st in 2015 with RLL; will be his 19th Indy car race here
RAHAL’S HIGHEST SERIES START / FINISH:     5 poles – Pole at St. Pete (street) 2009, Kansas (oval) 2009, Detroit Race 1 (street) 2017, IMS (road) 2023 August, Portland (road) / 6 wins – 1st in St. Pete in 2008, Fontana & Mid-Ohio 2015, Texas 2016, Detroit Race 1 & Race 2 2017

DEFRANCESCO’S BEST MID-OHIO START / FINISH:     20th in 2022 / 14th in 2023; will be his third INDYCAR race here
DEFRANCESCO’S HIGHEST SERIES START / FINISH:     5th at the IMS road course (August 2023, 2025) / 11th at Indy 500 (2025)

FOSTER’S BEST MID-OHIO START / FINISH:     First INDYCAR race here; 2nd in 2023 & 2024 INDY NXT / 1st in 2023 INDY NXT
FOSTER’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH:     Pole at Road America 2025 / 11th (Indy GP and Road America 2025)

RLL’S BEST START / FINISH AT MID-OHIO:     Pole 1997 (Herta) / 1st 2015 (G. Rahal)

NEWS & NOTES:

BACK HOME FOR RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING
The 2025 Honda Indy 200 will mark the 29th 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 when the team competed in the GTLM class. The team has earned four podiums (1st – G. Rahal 2015; 3rd – B. Rahal 1997, 1998, G. Rahal 2017), 16 top-five’s and 27 top-10 finishes at the track and the highest start is pole (Herta 1997). Other front row starts came in 1999 (Herta 2nd), 2017 and 2023 (Rahal 2nd).  Prior to the 2025 event, the team prepared a total of 50 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, ’21-24), Santino Ferrucci (’21) Christian Lundgaard (2022-24), Jack Harvey (2022-23) and Pietro Fittipaldi (2024). The team will enter the No. 15 Fifth Third Bank entry for Graham Rahal, the No. 30 EVTEC entry for Devlin DeFrancesco and the No. 45 Droplight / Desnuda entry for Louis Foster and will bring that total to 53 in 2025.

BOBBY RAHAL TO BE THE GRAND MARSHAL ON 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS MID-OHIO WIN
Bobby Rahal earned his first INDYCAR win at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on September 1, 1985 and won back-to-back in 1986. He has a long history at the track including attending the first ever race here. In celebration of the 40th anniversary of his first INDYCAR win here in 1985, he will be the Grand Marshal of the race on Sunday.
“It’s a great honor to be the Grand Marshal for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. Mid-Ohio played an important role in my personal and professional life. I went to the first ever race there with my father in 1962 and made annual trips there after that, sometimes twice a year. I got my first win at Mid-Ohio in my SCCA class in 1974, won both IROC races I competed in there, won the Lumberman’s race and of course the two INDYCAR races in 1985 and 1986. Being by Trueman’s side when he bought the track in 1980 and winning the IMSA race with him in 1983 as well as winning the INDYCAR races there and seeing Graham win there in 2015 are some of my greatest memories at one of my favorite tracks. It was a privilege to drive on such as great circuit all those years.”

RECENT TEAM PERFORMANCE ON ROAD AND STREET COURSES
In the previous three events on road and street courses, RLL was the only team to have all three cars in the Fast Six at the Sonsio Grand Prix at IMS (2nd – Rahal; 3rd – Foster; 5th – DeFrancesco), were represented in the Fast Six on the streets of Detroit when Rahal qualified fifth and were the only team to put multiple cars in the Fast Six at Road America when Foster won his maiden pole and Rahal qualified sixth.

GRAHAM RETURNS HOME
The 2025 Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio will mark Rahal’s 19th 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 in 2023 and 2017. He has finished in the top-five, six times in his past 11 races here. In total, he has one win (2015), two podiums (2017), six top-five and 11 top-10 finishes in his 18 races here including a pair of fourth place finishes in the doubleheader in 2020. 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 stop 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. After qualifying performance on road courses of second (IMS) and sixth (Road America) at the previous two, he is optimistic of s strong weekend.
“I’m looking forward to going back to my home race. It’s always great to see all the support for the Rahal’s there. It’s also great to see dad get honored there on the 40th anniversary of his INDYCAR win. I know how much the place means to him and the Rahal family – more than anywhere else. I know people automatically assume that it would be Indianapolis, but Mid-Ohio really is where all of our love for the sport grew. It will be great weekend to have everybody together. Starting on the front row there two years ago was pretty darn cool. And I do think that we’ve improved since then and do think that we will be better this weekend than we have been. We had race pace then too that weekend but unfortunately had a bad pit stop that put us behind. Hopefully we will have a trouble-free race and have an even better day. I expect us to be competitive in qualifying and I’m looking forward to that. Race wise, it’s going to be extremely hot this weekend. I’m hopeful that we can have a good, strong day. Mid-Ohio tests everybody to the core. It will be extremely tough and physical and hopefully we can put the Fifth Third Bank car up front.”

DEFRANCESCO AT MID-OHIO
The Honda Indy 200 will mark Devlin DeFrancesco’s third INDYCAR race at Mid-Ohio. His highest start is 20th in 2022, and highest finish is 14th in 2023 – both with Andretti Steinbrenner Racing. After matching his best series start of fifth at the IMS road course in 2023 and 2025, and frequenting the top of the time sheets in practice on the road course at Road America but having his fastest qualifying lap hindered, he is aiming to show his potential at Mid-Ohio.
“We’ve been fast most places we’ve gone to this year, especially on the road courses. I see no reason why we can’t be fast and fighting at the front here. It will all come down the execution, getting a gap in qualifying and going for it. Race wise a clean day should get us a solid result on the No. 30 EVTEC car. Our group deserves it after all the work that’s gone in from everyone. Mid-Ohio is a tricky place; the lap times are always very close. It is very much a rhythm type track. Ninety laps at this place with not much rest will definitely be physical! I have no doubt the No. 30 team is competitive enough to be fighting at the front. We need to execute starting from Practice 1. Knowing we have a strong car, and team is half the battle. It’s up to us to put it together and execute. Qualifying will be important here as overtaking is for sure harder than Road America.”

FOSTER AIMS TO BACK UP POLE-WINNING PERFORMANCE FROM ROAD AMERICA
He gained valuable experience in the previous race as the polesitter at Road America, but five cautions contributed to multiple fuel and tire strategy’s, and he finished 11th which matched his career best finish from the grand prix at IMS in May. In his two previous INDY NXT races here, he won in 2023 from a second-place start and started/finished second in 2024. He will aim to back up his strong performance from Road America and continue to gain valuable experience in his rookie season this weekend.
“Obviously, it was super, super cool to win my first pole at Road America and I’m proud to be able to do that for the boys. I think the biggest thing for me about that is just showing how well the guys were able to put the Droplight / Desnuda Tequila Honda back together. They didn’t have a lot of time to turn it around and they did a really good job. Like I said at the time, the pole is dedicated to them for all the hard work that they’ve been doing. It wasn’t something that I expected to do in my rookie season, for sure. It was definitely always a target, and I wanted to try and do it, but it wasn’t something I expected to do. Deep down I thought it was doable, especially after our performance at the road courses.
“I think we’ve got a very strong package on the road courses right now. We just bluntly need to be able to convert that into good results in the race. Qualifying up front is amazing and all, but we need to figure out how to stay there. And then once we do that, we need to figure out how to do that consistently. The target is always moving. We’ve just got to work hard at it. There is a lot of work going on behind the scenes to try and figure that out and make sure that we’re right. We’ve reviewed Road America, we know what to do better. It’s all about executing and applying that knowledge.
“It’s going to be hot. It’s going to suck, simple as that. It will be just as hot as Road America and it’s twice as physical so I’m going to be pretty hot come race day for sure. Everyone has to deal with it, so it is what it is. You’ve got to be hydrated, make sure you’re fit and healthy. I felt comfortable being up front in Road America. That’s what I been used to my whole career. Starting in the middle of the pack of 17 or more cars is not something I’m used to. I was very comfortable up at the front and enjoyed that experience because I knew what I was doing in a way. We didn’t have the pace to be able to stay up front unfortunately but it was a good experience to see what it was like to race with some of those guys up there. To be honest, it wasn’t any different to what I’ve experience before. It kind of felt like last season again in a way. I hope we have a good qualifying. I think that’s going to be the key factor for the race initially and then make sure we execute for the race. It will be a long hot race so I just need to make sure I’m hydrated and ready to go and also the pit crew because it will be a long hot one for them too. We will all work hard to make sure we can realistically bring home a solid top-10 or top-five results. That needs to be our target from now on until the rest of the year.”

POINT STANDINGS AFTER 9 OF 17 RACES
Heading into Round 10 at the Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio, Rahal has a total of 133 points and is ranked 18th overall. Foster is 23rd with 102 points and DeFrancesco is 25th with 89. Foster is only -2 points behind Robert Schwartzman in the Rookie of the Year standings (104-102).