RLL Returns to the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto as Defending Winners

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto – Streets Around Exhibition Place
Pre-Race Notes
Round 13 of 18 in the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES

DATE:     July 19-21, 2024

PRACTICE BROADCAST:     Live on Peacock Premium on Friday from 3:00 – 4:15 p.m. ET, on Saturday from 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. and Sunday from 10:00 – 10:30 a.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 2:45 – 4:15 p.m. ET Saturday.

RACE BROADCAST:     Live on Peacock on Sunday, July 21 from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. And also on IRN, Sirius XM INDYCAR Nation 218 and SiriusXM NBC Sports Audio 85.

TRACK LAYOUT:     1.786-mile, 11-turn temporary street course
RACE LENGTH:     85 laps / 151.81 miles

2023 WINNER:     Christian Lundgaard
2023 POLESITTER:     Christian Lundgaard (100.217 mph)

RAHAL’S BEST TORONTO START / FINISH:     2nd in 2017 / 4th in 2022; will be his 17th Indy car race here and 18th overall
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

FITTIPALDI’S BEST START / FINISH AT TORONTO:     First event here
FITTIPALDI’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH:     10th at Phoenix (2018) / 9th at Portland (2018)

LUNDGAARD’S BEST START / FINISH AT TORONTO:     1st / 1st – both in 2023; will be his third race here
LUNDGAARD’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH:     2 Poles – IMS (road course) 2023, Toronto (street) 2023 / 1 Win – Toronto (street) 2023

RLL’S BEST START / FINISH AT TORONTO:     Pole 1992 (B. Rahal) / 2nd (B. Rahal 1992, 1994, 1995; Jourdain Jr. 2003)

NEWS & NOTES:

DEFENDING WINNERS – 1 WIN, 6 PODIUMS AND 2 POLES IN TORONTO FOR RLL
The 2024 Honda Indy Toronto will mark the 23rd year of Indy car racing for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) here. The team also competed in the Atlantic Series races here in 2003 and 2004. The team won in 2023 with Christian Lundgaard, earned four second place finishes (Rahal 1992, 1994, 1995; Michel Jourdain Jr. 2003), and finished third in 1996 (B. Rahal). In total, the team has earned SIX podiums (3rd – Rahal 1996), 11 top-five’s and 22 top-10 finishes at the track. RLL’s best start is pole in 1992 by Bobby Rahal and 2023 by Christian Lundgaard.  Prior to the 2024 event, the team prepared a total of 41 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), Takuma Sato (2012, 2018-19), Graham Rahal (2013 x 2; 2014 x2; 2015-2019, ’22-23), James Jakes (2013 x 2), Luca Filippi (2014 x2), Christian Lundgaard (’22-23) and Jack Harvey (’22-23). RLL also prepared three Toyota Atlantic entries (Danica Patrick 2003-2004; Chris Festa 2004, The No. 15 United Rentals entry for Graham Rahal, the No. 30 HUB International entry for Pietro Fittipaldi and No. 45 Hy-Vee entry for Christian Lundgaard will bring the Indy car total to 44 in 2024.

GRAHAM RAHAL AT TORONTO
The 2024 Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto will be Graham Rahal’s 17th Indy car race here and 18th overall (Atlantic 2006) here. In 16 Indy car races, his best start of second came in 2017 with RLL and best finish of fourth came in 2022. He has three, top-five starts and seven, top-10 finishes. Last year, wet conditions in qualifying led to contact and derailed the top starting spot Rahal was on target for according to computer data, but he started 27th after losing his two fastest laps as a penalty for bringing out the red flag after hitting the wall. In the race, he avoided an opening lap crash and drove through a runoff area to avoid an impassable track to catch up to the field. Persistence paid off and he climbed to a ninth-place finish. He is expecting the new hybrid system to make an impact over the weekend in its street course debut.
“Last year was frustrating with the weather. I spun twice in qualifying which ruined our race weekend in terms of having a chance to win but I had a good result in the race, with some passes and being able to motor through the opening lap accident to get a top-10 finish. We know we have more work to do on our street course package in the week leading up to the race and throughout the weekend. The hybrid should be very effective in Toronto coming out of a lot of corners. lt  depends on how much deployment time we will get for qualifying but with the minimum speeds in the corners, I would expect that the hybrid is quite effective.”

PIETRO AND TORONTO
The 2024 Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto will mark Pietro’s first race here. He will drive the HUB Honda. His grandfather, Emerson Fittipaldi, won the race in 1987 and earned two, second-place finishes (1989, 1993) and a third (1994) and his while Christian Fittipaldi, son of Pietro’s grand uncle Wilson Fittipaldi, finished third in 1999 and 2002 here. He is looking to put his recent simulator experience on the track into practical knowledge beginning Friday afternoon.
“Toronto has been on the INDYCAR calendar for quite some time. I’ve watched a few races there and have been on the simulator practicing for the event last week. It looks like a very cool track. The team had a lot of success there last year with Christian winning. I’m definitely looking forward to the last street circuit of the season. I want to finish the street circuit portion of the schedule on a high. We finished 13th at Detroit and maybe we can get a top-10 at Toronto. The use of the hybrid system will be pretty straightforward on a street course, and pretty similar to Mid-Ohio. It’s just a matter of understanding where to deploy it most efficiently. It might be a bit trickier hitting the button when going over the bumps, but you improvise and get used to that.”

DEFENDING WINNER CHRISTIAN
Lundgaard returns to the streets of Toronto as the defending winner after having earned his first INDYCAR victory with an almost 12-second margin of victory after leading 54 of 85 laps from his second series pole. In 2022, he started 10th and climbed as high as fifth before his first of two stops on Lap 17. He made his second stop with the majority of the field during the second of four caution periods on Lap 47 and returned to the track 12th. He gained more positions when a few drivers made their final stop and others made contact. He took the checkered flag in eighth place for his highest career INDYCAR finish to date at that point. He has the mindset that what has been done once can be repeated.
“We had a very good weekend last year and it’s something we want to replicate again this year. With the hybrid, I think we are going to potentially start seeing the cars being faster even with the extra weight because I think even more grip will be laid down in Practice 1 because of the weight of the cars. Potentially we might be faster. I’m looking forward to the weekend; I obviously have very good memories of our win in Toronto but at the same time, leaving Iowa, we want to get a good result. We know we’ve been strong on street circuits and road courses this year so executing will be the main priority. We come in with a lot of pressure because we’re the defending winner of the race. I plan to go in with a good mentality and from having the knowledge that it’s been done before so it should be possible to do again. From a team perspective we have a good shot. It’s all about executing and putting the Hy-Vee car on the top of the podium again.”

POINTS BATTLE AFTER 13 OF 18 RACES
Heading into Round 14 of 18 at the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto, Lundgaard has a total of 203 points and is ranked 13th overall. Rahal is ranked 16th with 177 and Fittipaldi is 20th with 124.