IMSA WEATHERTECH SERIES
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Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Pre-Race Notes
BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland – Portland International Raceway
Round 14 of 17 in the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES
DATE: August 23-25, 2024
PRACTICE BROADCAST: Live on Peacock Premium on Friday from 5:55 – 7:10 p.m. ET, Saturday from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. ET and 8:15 – 8:45 p.m. ET. Also live on the INDYCAR Radio Network (IRN) and www.indycar.com (timing & scoring + live analysis).
QUALIFYING BROADCAST: Live on Peacock Premium, the IRN and www.indycar.com (timing & scoring + live analysis) from 3:30 – 5:00 p.m. ET Saturday.
RACE BROADCAST: Live on USA Network Sunday, August 25 from 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. ET. And also, on IRN, Sirius XM INDYCAR Nation 218 and SiriusXM NBC Sports Audio 85.
TRACK LAYOUT: 1.964-mile, 12-turn permanent road course
RACE LENGTH: 110 laps / 216.04 miles
2023 WINNER: Alex Palou
2023 POLESITTER: Graham Rahal (58.3195 / 121.236 mph)
RAHAL’S BEST PORTLAND START / FINISH: 1st in 2023 / 5th in 2022; will be his 7th Indy car race here & 9th overall
RAHAL’S HIGHEST SERIES START / FINISH: 5 Poles – St. Pete (street) 2009, Kansas (oval) 2009, Detroit (street) 2017, IMS (road) 2023, Portland 2023 / 6 Wins – St. Pete 2008, Fontana (oval; 500 miles) 2015, Mid-Ohio (road) 2015, Texas (oval) 2016; Detroit Race 1 2017, Detroit Race 2 2017
FITTIPALDI’S BEST START / FINISH AT PORTLAND: 16th / 9th – 2018 (best series finish); will be his second race here
FITTIPALDI’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH: 10th at Phoenix (2018) / 9th at Portland (2018)
LUNDGAARD’S BEST START / FINISH AT PORTLAND: 4th in 2022 / 11th in 2023; will be his third race here
LUNDGAARD’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH: 2 poles – IMS (road) May 2023, Toronto (street) 2023 / 1 Win – Toronto 2023
VIPS’S BEST START / FINISH AT PORTLAND: 18th / 18th – both in 2023; will be his second race here and third in the series
VIPS’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH: 7th (Laguna Seca ‘23) / 18th (Portland ‘23)
RLL’S BEST START / FINISH AT PORTLAND: 1st – Bryan Herta (1998), Max Papis (2001), Graham Rahal (2023) / 1st – Papis (2001) & Takuma Sato (2018); 17th race here
NEWS & NOTES:
DEFENDING POLE WINNING TEAM — RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING AT PORTLAND
The 2024 event will mark the 18th time for Rahal Letterman Lanigan (RLL) Racing to compete in an Indy car race here. The team competed in CART and Champ Car-sanctioned races here from 1992-2003 with a best starting position of pole by Bryan Herta in 1998, Max Papis in 2001 and Graham Rahal in 2023 and best finish of first place in 2018 by Takuma Sato and in 2001 by Max Papis. RLL has earned a total of four podium finishes here (3rd – B. Rahal 1995, Herta 1998) and has led a total of 172 laps (1998: Herta, 20; 2001 Papis, 69; 2018: Sato, 25; 2021: Rahal, 36; 2023: Rahal, 21). In addition, the team competed in the Toyota Atlantic races here in 2003 (Danica Patrick, Jon Fogerty) and 2004 (Patrick and Chris Festa).
Prior to 2024, the team prepared a total of 35 Indy car entries for drivers such as Bobby Rahal (1992-1998), Mike Groff (1993-94), Raul Boesel (1995), Bryan Herta (1996-99), Max Papis (1999-2001), Kenny Brack (2000-01), Jimmy Vasser (2002), Michel Jourdain (2002-2003), Graham Rahal (2018-19, 21-23), Takuma Sato (2018-19, 21), Oliver Askew (2021), Christian Lundgaard (2022-23), Jack Harvey (2022) and Juri Vips (2023). The No. 15 Hendrickson Honda entry for Graham Rahal, the No. 30 Localiza Rent a Car Honda entry and the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda entry for Christian Lundgaard and the No. 75 AMADA entry for Juri Vips will bring that total to 41 in 2024.
GRAHAM IN PORTLAND
It will be the 9th overall race for Graham at PIR and seventh in the main event. Last year, he started from his fifth career series pole on alternate tires and led the first 21 laps before his first stop to switch to the preferred primary tires, that he won pole on. Once he pit, fifth place starter and eventual winner Alex Palou, who started on primary black tires and performed a “overcut” pit strategy, cycled into the lead and held it for the majority of the remaining laps (led 69/110 laps) while Rahal repeatedly struggled with track position and traffic as well as a fueling issue on his final stop and finished 12th. In 2022, Rahal started 11th and finished fifth. In 2021, he earned his best start of the season at Portland with fifth place. He led two times for a total of 36 laps, which was the most for all drivers, but the timing of a caution negated his pit strategy, and he finished 10th. The series didn’t race in Portland in 2020 due to the pandemic. In 2019, he started 15th and misjudged the braking point into the first turn on the opening lap which resulted in a multi-car crash. His race car was placed outside the track and the team could not attempt to repair it and he retired in 23rd place. In 2018, he started 10th and had gotten through Turns 1 and 2, which was expected to be action-packed at the start, and after getting through Turn 2, Veach squeezed Hinchcliffe and the two made contact which set off a multi-car crash that collected Hinchcliffe, Marco Andretti, Rahal, points-leader Dixon and his then teammate Ed Jones. Rahal’s car was too damaged to continue so it was towed back to the paddock and after more than one hour he returned to the track to complete a handful of laps to collect two championship points, which was the maximum possible. This move helped him at season’s end. Prior to that, he competed in the 2007 Champ Car World Series race where he started eighth and finished ninth in his rookie season for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing. He started from pole in the Atlantic’s race here in 2006 but was hit by Simon Pagenaud on Lap 1 and finished 27th. In 2005, he earned his first professional win at PIR in the Star Mazda race after starting fourth and winning by a margin of 0.0317 seconds. He’s looking forward to getting back to Portland for a chance to maximize the potential of a competitive car and get a good result for the Hendrickson Honda team.
“I’ve always enjoyed racing at Portland International Raceway and had success there. A couple of years ago we had a chance to win that race, but the yellow flag ultimately killed us after we were in the lead for most of the first part of that race. Obviously, that’s part of the racing but last year we were competitive again and started on pole, which was great. We blew it kind of early with strategy that didn’t go our way which was disappointing, but we hope to pick up where we left off, be fast and turn that (result) around.”
PIETRO RETURNS TO THE SITE OF HIS CAREER BEST INDYCAR FINISH
When Pietro entered the 2024 season, there were only four tracks on the calendar that he had experience on. One of those is PIR, where he earned his career best Indy car finish of ninth place in 2018 after starting 16th with Dale Coyne Racing. He is looking forward to getting back on track at PIR.
“I really love the Portland racetrack. I raced there in 2018, had a good race and finished ninth. I am really looking forward to going back there after all these years and re-learn the track. I think they have a bit of new asphalt and Turn 1 is a little different from what I raced on. I’m looking forward to finishing our road course season on a high with a top 10 finish and then finishing off the rest of the season after that on two more ovals.”
LUNDGAARD IN PORTLAND
Christian will make his third start at the track after running in podium contention in his maiden race here in 2022 and also ran well in practice in 2023, setting the first and second fastest times in the two sessions, respectively. He wasn’t able to maximize performance in qualifying and started 17th in the race but jumped as high as 13th in the opening laps after avoiding contact between competitors on two different instances. He took the restart from a full course caution on Lap 6 from 12th place and ultimately finished 11th. In 2022, he qualified fourth but started third due to Newgarden, who set the second fastest time, having to serve a six-spot grid penalty. He passed Power on the opening lap and held second place until leader McLaughlin made his first stop on Lap 21/110. He pit from the lead on Lap 22 but the fueler had an issue with slower than usual fuel flow. He made his second stop on Lap 47 and settled into fifth place behind McLaughlin, Power, O’Ward and Newgarden. When he pit from fifth place for his third and final stop on Lap 78, he stalled in his pit and lost a few positions. He was running eighth on Lap 94 when he attempted to pass Rossi and went off course in Turn 2. He collected a foam banner that stuck to the front of his race car, and he had to pit to have it removed and returned to the track in 21st place, where he ultimately finished. He is optimistic of a strong performance on the final road course of the season.
“Portland is one of the tracks where we have had success in the past and have had fast cars. We haven’t been able to turn that into a good result, but I think with Juri coming in as well, it’s an extra opportunity for us as a team to finally execute. We know the car is fast since Graham was on pole last year and I started third in 2022. We didn’t maximize qualifying last year so we didn’t show the potential we had on the 45 Hy-Vee team, but I think it brings a lot of optimism going into race weekend for this year. We know the car is fast at Portland, so we need to get something from it. I’m excited to have a road course in the midst of all these ovals to mix it up a bit. It’s going to be a fun one that I am looking forward to.”
JURI VIPS TO MAKE HIS INDYCAR RETURN AT PORTLAND
Vips, 24, will make his return to INDYCAR competition for his third series start at PIR this weekend. He made his series debut at PIR in 2023, where he started and finished 18th. He used that experience to run up front the following weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca where he was sixth fastest in Practice 1 and a mere -0.05 from advancing to the Firestone Fast Six on Saturday qualifying seventh. After a six-grid penalty in the race for an unapproved engine change, he started 13th and was collected in a multi-car crash on the opening lap but soldiered on to finish 24th. Vips is a three-time Formula 2 race winner and a part of the Red Bull Junior Team between 2018-2022, where he also served as a Formula One test and reserve driver from 2020-22. He drove an Indy car for the first time on October 12, 2022, at Sebring International Raceway in a test for the team and again at Barber Motorsports Park on March 13, 2023. He has also performed static simulator testing for the team in 2023-2024. His most recent win came at the F2 sprint race in Monza on September 10, 2022, and his most recent race was at Laguna Seca on September 10, 2023. He is looking forward to returning to competition.
“It will be great to get back to Portland to race. I haven’t raced all year so it will still be a challenge but it’s good that I have experience on the Portland track. It’s an easier situation than we were in last year because at least this year I don’t have to learn the track. Last year was also my first ever INDYCAR event. I have travelled with the team and gone to all of the events, so I definitely feel more prepared this time around. Everything was pretty much smooth sailing last year but hopefully we can be on pace a bit quicker in the weekend this time. I think we have had a pretty good road course package all year, but the addition of the hybrid was a bit of a curve ball for us this season. We have only done one road course race with it, which was Mid-Ohio, so we have a baseline setup but it’s not the typical weekend where we have had the same cars for years and years like last year. It is only the second road course race with the hybrid so there are still a lot of things to try and a lot of development going on. In that sense, it’s a little bit of a different type of weekend from last year but the team is prepared and I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
POINTS BATTLE AFTER 13 OF 17 RACES
Heading into Round 14 of 17, Lundgaard is in 12th place in the series standings with a total of 244 points, Rahal is 18th with 205 and Fittipaldi is 19th with 151.
