RLL Heads to the Sonsio GP at the IMS Road Course — The Site of Strong Qualifying and Race Performance in Recent Years

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Pre-Race Notes
Sonsio Grand Prix – Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course
Round 6 of 18 in the 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES

DATE: Friday – Saturday, May 8-9, 2026

PRACTICE BROADCASTS: Live on FS2 on Friday from 9:00–10:30 a.m. ET and Live on FS1 from 1:00-2:30 p.m. ET, and live on FS1 on Saturday from 11:30–12:30 p.m. ET. Also live on the INDYCAR Radio Network (IRN) and www.indycar.com (timing & scoring + live analysis).

QUALIFYING BROADCAST: Live on FS2, the IRN and www.indycar.com (timing & scoring + live analysis) from 5:30 – 7:00 p.m. ET Friday.

RACE BROADCAST: Live on FOX on Saturday, May 9 from 4:30-7:00 p.m. ET. And also on IRN, Sirius XM INDYCAR Nation 218.

TRACK LAYOUT: 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course
RACE LENGTH: 85 laps / 207.35 miles
2025 WINNER: Alex Palou
2025 POLESITTER: Alex Palou (1:09.3417 / 126.625 mph)

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; 18 events

RAHAL’S BEST START / FINISH AT IMS (ROAD): 1st in 2023 (August) / 2nd in 2015, 2020 & 2023; 17 events
RAHAL’S BEST START / FINISH AT IMS (OVAL): 4th – 2009 w/NHLR / 3rd – 2011 (CGR) & 2020 (RLL); 18 events
RAHAL’S BEST 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

FOSTER’S BEST START / FINISH AT IMS (ROAD): 3rd / 11th – both in 2025; 1 event
FOSTER’S BEST START / FINISH AT IMS (OVAL): 20th / 12th – both in 2025; 1 event
FOSTER’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH: Pole at Road America 2025 / 11th (Indy GP and Road America 2025)

SCHUMACHER’S BEST START / FINISH AT IMS (ROAD): Will be his first race here but he tested Oct. 13, 2025
SCHUMCHER’S BEST START / FINISH AT IMS (OVAL): Will be his first Indy 500
SCHUMACHER’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH: 4th / 18th – both in Phoenix (oval) 2026

SATO’S BEST START / FINISH AT IMS (OVAL): 2nd in 2025 / 1st in 2017 (AA) and 2020 (RLL)
SATO’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH: 10 Poles – Iowa (oval) 2011, Edmonton (street) 2011, Houston Race 1 (street) 2013, St. Pete (street) 2014, Detroit Dual 2 (street) 2014, Detroit Dual 2 2017, Pocono (oval) 2017, Barber (road) 2019, Texas (oval) 2019, Gateway (oval) 2020 – Race 2 / 6 Wins – Long Beach (2013), Indianapolis 500 (2017), Portland (road) 2018, Barber 2019, Gateway (oval) 2019, Indianapolis 500 (2020)

NEWS & NOTES:

RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING & THE IMS ROAD COURSE
The Sonsio Grand Prix will mark the team’s 19th 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 also earned third place in 2024. 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 (2014-2024), 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), Christian Lundgaard (2021, 2022 x2, 2023 x2, 2024), Pietro Fittipaldi (2024) Louis Foster (2025) and Devlin DeFrancesco (2025). The team qualified second (Rahal), third (Foster) and fifth (DeFrancesco) here last year. RLL has entered the No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Honda for Graham Rahal, the No. 45 Desnuda Organic Tequila Honda for Louis Foster and the No. 47 ENVE Honda for Mick Schumacher for the race.

RAHAL & THE INDY ROAD COURSE – 1 POLE & 3 SECOND-PLACE FINISHES
Rahal will make his 18th INDYCAR start on the road course at IMS. His top start is pole here in 2023 and top finish is second place, three times (2015, 2020, 2023). Last year he led the team’s effort in taking three of the Fast Six spots with qualifying positions of second (Rahal), third (Foster) and fifth (DeFrancesco). In the race, he started second and took the lead at the start and ultimately led a race high 49 of 85 laps in the race. After taking the lead, he held it through two pit stops after the pit cycles shook out. During the second stint he closed on rookie Jacob Abel, who did not want to give up the lead lap, which closed Palou’s gap to Rahal by half and also caused Rahal to use up his overtake and tires. He had a slightly slower final stop and also had to use primary tires while those around him had the faster alternates and dropped to sixth place, which he held until the checkered flag for his best finish of the season to date. In 2024, Rahal started ninth and passed Rossi and Pato before the pit cycle started and cycled into the lead on Lap 15-16 before he made his first stop. He ran in the top six for most of the race, but the timing of a late caution benefited drivers like Scott McLaughlin and he ultimately finished ninth. 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. After three top-10 finishes in five races, including a third-place podium finish at Barber, Rahal is hoping to continue the momentum into May.
“I’m excited for the Grand Prix. We’ve done very well here in the past, so I feel good about our chances and about where we’re at in terms of competitiveness. Fingers crossed we can put all the pieces of the puzzle together and have a great weekend. That’s the Number One objective all the time but obviously at this track we’ve had really good success so hopefully we can keep that rolling. We’ve got a little momentum, so we’ve got to carry this forward. This is an important month for us and we’re top-10 in the point standings. We’re right there but we’ve got work to do to close the gap to the top five so we need to put the pressure on and try to have some good results. May is critical for that.”

LOUIS HOPES TO REPEAT STRONG QUALIFYING & HAVE IMPROVED RACE PACE
This will mark Foster’s second INDYCAR race at the IMS road course. Last year he earned his top starting position to date of third place, which he later eclipsed at Road America with his first pole. In the race, he dropped to fourth on the start when teammate DeFrancesco passed him. He had started the race on new alternate tires but they fell off quicker than expected and instead of a planned pit stop on L22, the team called him in on L17. The team’s race pace and tire management wasn’t as expected, and he ultimately took the checkered flag in 11th place for his best INDYCAR career result to date. He also competed in three INDY NXT races on the road course at IMS with a best start of third in 2023 and a win in Race 2 in 2024. He is hoping to repeat last year’s qualifying performance and apply information learned since then that could help in the race this year.
“We had a good qualifying last year. It’s definitely one of the team’s best events, one that we always circle on the calendar and a place that we expect to do well at. I think the expectations are the same as last year really: to try and match it if not do better than that. On the 45 Desnuda car, I think we need to focus more on the car in race conditions. I think we’ve learned a lot since last year about what I need to do and what the team needs to do as a whole to make these tires last as long as they do for other drivers and teams. We want to try and be as far up front in qualifying as possible and hopefully make it into the fast six again. And then in the race, we hope to be able to hold our own and to battle up front with the top guys and not fall back because of tire degradation. Graham had quite a strong performance at Barber and we’ve made some step forward on road courses so there are the ingredients available to perform well if we put it all together correctly. I’m looking forward to getting back out there and officially starting the month of May.”

MICK TO MAKE HIS RACING DEBUT AT THE RACING CAPITAL OF THE WORLD
Mick Schumacher will return to the site of his first INDYCAR experience — the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he first tested an Indy car for RLL on October 13, 2025. He has five series races under his belt since then as well as tests at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Phoenix International Raceway, WorldWide Technology Raceway and the IMS oval. Saturday’s event will mark his first INDYCAR race on a track his father Michael also raced on. He is looking forward to experiencing a race event on the road course and the build up to the 110th running of the Indianapolis 500.
“The Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course is obviously one of those places that I have had the chance to drive on before. I did my first test in INDYCAR there, which was a great experience, great knowledge of trying different things and I think we have a good package to go into race weekend so I think we’re very much looking forward to it. The track is a fun track; it’s a smooth track. And it’s one that we’ll have a lot of opportunities on in terms of qualifying and the race, which should be pretty fun. Since it’s not the longest of tracks, we do have a few laps in the books which is nice and we’re all very excited about it as a team. I think we can really do well there. Previously the team has shown that and with the fact that we have the experience from the previous test, but also the performance the team has shown in the past, I think those two hopefully will make a good combination.
“Obviously, building my INDYCAR experience is important, and I think we have been doing that. We’ll hopefully get some consistency in there in the next couple of weekends and especially after the Indy 500; which would be ideal. But also, from my perspective, for the Indy GP, that’s all buildup so the whole month of May is just kind of day-by-day chipping away toward that one big event and I’m excited about it.
“The (Indy 500) rookie orientation program went very smoothly. The first day of testing was a very calm and uneventful day for us. We were really just running most of the time on our own because we were trying so many different things and just trying to understand what is necessary for me to feel comfortable overall and feel comfortable in the car. Only on the second day, we started to drive a little bit in traffic, which is obviously the more exciting one and it was very fun and very special and very different to everything that I’ve done so far. Even compared to the Phoenix race we’ve done. It is a very different feeling with those low downforce config cars which was obviously very light and very easy to upset in multiple ways so it’s a very challenging place to do long runs and especially race runs, and in traffic. We were building up the confidence and building up those laps and the understanding of everything, which we’ll continue to do until we get to qualifying settings (on the car) and I think that’s when things are going to get very fun and very fast and very special.
“Obviously, in terms of the Indy 500, we’re just all looking forward to it. I’m going in with a clear mind and I will let everything kind of come towards me in the sense that I want to experience it all without having any hopes or beliefs beforehand. And that hopefully means I’ll be just as thrilled as everybody is telling me and I’m very excited to see the fans and race in front of them and see the greatest spectacle in racing over here. I’m very excited to be part of it.”

BOBBY RAHAL: True American Racer – TO AIR FRIDAY ON FS1
Bobby Rahal’s racing career and the mark he made on the Indy 500 and INDYCAR history is chronicled in a new documentary titled “Bobby Rahal: True American Racer,” produced by FOX Sports, Big Machine Racing Productions and Chassy Media. It is set to premiere on FOX on Friday, May 8 at 7:30 p.m. ET.

The documentary completion coincides with the 40th anniversary of his 1986 Indy 500 victory, which served as an emotional tribute to car owner Jim Trueman, who was battling cancer and died just days later. After winning, Rahal cemented his legacy as a CART star by capturing two more championships in 1987 and 1992 before retiring in 1998 with 24 career wins. He later became a successful team owner, forming Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and winning once again, but as an owner. Rahal’s impact on the Indy 500 extends beyond his 1986 victory, as he helped shape the modern era of INDYCAR through both his success as a driver and his leadership as an owner. It will also highlight the emotional stakes of the 1986 race, the deep bond between Rahal and Trueman and the strategy behind one of the most famous restarts in Indy history.

Alongside Rahal, the documentary features Al Unser Jr., Brian Redman and Bryan Herta among others, with Trueman appearing via archival footage. Together, they reconstruct the defining moments and emotional weight of one of INDYCAR’s most iconic races. Bobby Rahal had this to say about the documentary.

“I’m very flattered and appreciative of Scott (Borchetta), Adam (Sherer) and Nate (Adams) for creating a documentary on my career. It’s a surreal experience to a certain degree because I never thought there would be anything like this. I’m excited to see it, and I hope people who do see it enjoy the story of my journey. I have no doubt in my mind that with those three individuals at the helm it will be done very well.
“With it being the 40th anniversary of my Indy 500 win, I’m sure much of it will focus on that moment. It will be special to relive it and share it with so many people again. There will be plenty of opportunities to watch it on FOX, and I’m truly flattered. I think my family and friends may discover things they never knew, which makes it even more meaningful. I’m looking forward to seeing it on FOX and at the screening in Indianapolis.”