IMSA WEATHERTECH SERIES
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Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Pre-Race Notes
Sonsio Grand Prix – Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course
Round 5 of 17 in the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES
DATE: Friday – Saturday, May 9-10, 2025
PRACTICE BROADCASTS: Live on FS2 on Friday from 9:30–11:00 a.m. ET and 1:00-2:00 p.m. ET, and live on FS1 on Saturday from 11:30–12:00 p.m. ET. 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 4:30 – 6:00 p.m. ET Friday.
RACE BROADCAST: Live on FOX on Saturday, May 10 from 4:30-7:00 p.m. ET. And also on IRN and Sirius XM 160.
TRACK LAYOUT: 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course
RACE LENGTH: 85 laps / 207.35 miles
2024 WINNER: Alex Palou
2024 POLESITTER: Alex Palou (1:09.0004 / 127.251 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; 17 events
RAHAL’S BEST START / FINISH AT IMS (ROAD): 1st in 2023 (August) / 2nd in 2015, 2020 & 2023; 16 events
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 START / FINISH AT IMS (ROAD): 5th in 2023 / 17th in 2023 (May); will be his fifth start here
DEFRANCESCO’S HIGHEST SERIES START / FINISH: 5th at the IMS road course (August 2023) / 12th at WWTR (2022) and Detroit (2023)
FOSTER’S BEST START / FINISH AT IMS (ROAD): First INDYCAR race here; his top INDY NXT start is 3rd in 2023 and top finish is 1st in 2024 (Race 2)
FOSTER’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH: 10th at Thermal 2025 / 16th at Long Beach
NEWS & NOTES:
RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING & THE IMS ROAD COURSE
The Sonsio Grand Prix will mark the team’s 18th 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) and Pietro Fittipaldi (2024). RLL has entered the No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Honda for Graham Rahal, the No. 30 EVTEC Honda for Devlin DeFrancesco and the No. 45 Mi-Jack Honda for Louis Foster.
RAHAL AND THE INDY ROAD COURSE
Rahal will make his 17th 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). 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 looking forward to getting back to the IMS road course.
“I’m looking forward to Indy. It’s a track that we know we can be good at. I think we’ve always run very well, and raced very, very well at Indy. With the two-tire deal that was just announced for this year – where you’ve got to run two stints of blacks in the race as well as two stints with reds – it definitely made the strategy different at Indy. It’s a place that we know we can be fast at, so we’ve got a lot of confidence going in there. And it’s also a place I love so fingers crossed that we can have a really strong qualifying car. I feel like some of the changes we made at Barber should transfer well to the GP and then hopefully we can take it to the next step and have a strong race.”
DEFRANCESCO RETURNS TO THE SITE OF HIS TOP SERIES START OF FIFTH
After one year away from the series, DeFrancesco is looking forward to returning to the site of his top series start of fifth place in 2023. He hopes to improve upon his best finish here of 17th place in Race 1 in 2023 and knows both he and the team have run well here and are capable of good results.
“I love the Grand Prix at IMS. The last time I was there, I ran quite well. We were running in the fast six and leading laps. I think our racing package is very, very strong there. This team has historically been very strong there. And I think even this past weekend in Barber – at least in qualifying trim — we have a really strong, fast car. We just didn’t manage to get a lap on the faster alternate tires. I think things are starting to come together, just a little slower than I would want. I’m going into one of my favorite tracks on the calendar with a great team that have a great package there, and we know I can do well there to, so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be fighting where we feel we belong when we get there.”
LOUIS FOSTER RETURNS TO THE SITE OF AN INDY NXT VICTORY
Foster has 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 five points behind fellow rookie Robert Schwartzman in the Rookie of the Year battle and a good result this weekend would gain him some ground.
“There is nothing better than Indianapolis in May. I love the circuit and am looking forward to the event. I’ve had good success there in the past. It’s going to be a fun race. We’re racing at home and it’s always nice to sleep in your own bed when you race at home. The team has had strong results there in the past and I don’t see any reason why we can’t reproduce some of those results.”
