RLL to Make its 1000th Start at the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey – WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
Pre-Race Notes
Round 9 of 17 in the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES

DATE: June 21-23, 2024

PRACTICE BROADCAST: Live on Peacock Premium on Friday from 5:00 – 6:15 p.m. ET, Saturday from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. ET and Sunday from 3:00 – 3:30 p.m. ET. Also live on the INDYCAR Radio Network (IRN) andwww.indycar.com (timing & scoring + live analysis).

QUALIFYING BROADCAST: Live on Peacock Premium, the IRN and www.indycar.com (timing & scoring + live analysis) from 5:15 – 6:45 p.m. ET Saturday.

RACE BROADCAST: Live on USA Network on Sunday, June 23 from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. ET. And also on Peacock Premium, IRN, Sirius XM INDYCAR Nation 218 and SiriusXM NBC Sports Audio 85.

TRACK LAYOUT: 2.258-mile, 11-turn road course
RACE LENGTH: 95 laps / 214.51 miles

2023 WINNER: Scott Dixon
2023 POLESITTER: Felix Rosenqvist (1:06.6416 / 120.897 mph)

RAHAL’S BEST LAGUNA SECA START / FINISH: 8th in 2019 / 4th in 2021; will be his fifth INDYCAR 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

FITTIPALDI’S BEST ROAD AMERICA START / FINISH: Will be his first race here
FITTIPALDI’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH: 10th at Phoenix (2018) / 9th at Portland (2018)

LUNDGAARD’S BEST START / FINISH AT LAGUNA SECA: 3rd in 2023 / 5th in 2022; will be his third INDYCAR race here
LUNDGAARD’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH: 2 Poles – IMS (road) May 2023, Toronto (street) 2023 / 1 Win – Toronto 2023

RLL’S HIGHEST LAGUNA INDYCAR START/FINISH: 3 Indy Car Poles – 1997-1999 (Herta) / 3 Indy Car Wins– 1998-1999 (Herta), 2001 (Papis) / 6 Indy Car Podiums

NEWS & NOTES:

RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING TO MAKE ITS 1000TH START
The 2024 Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey will mark the 17th Indy car event for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and fourth here since 12 consecutive races at the track from 1992-2003. Even more notable is the fact that it will be the team’s 1000th, 1001 and 1002 start since the first race in 1992. The team has also competed in ALMS and IMSA races here from 2009-present as BMW M Team RLL and has earned three wins, three poles and a total of 11 podium finishes to date – including pole and a second-place finish in 2019. The Indy car team has earned three wins, three poles and a total of six podiums (1st – Herta 1998-1999; Papis 2001; 2nd – Herta 1996; 3rd: B. Rahal 1992, Papis 1999) including three straight pole positions (Herta 1997-1999). Prior to the 2024 event, the team prepared a total of 32 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), Graham Rahal (2019, 2021-22), Takuma Sato (2019, 2021), Oliver Askew (2021), Jack Harvey (2022), Christian Lundgaard (2022-23) and Juri Vips (2023). The No. 15 Mobil 1 entry for Graham Rahal, the No. 30 Eurofarma entry for Pietro Fittipaldi and No. 45 Hy-Vee entry for Christian Lundgaard will bring the Indy car total to 35 entries in 2024.

GRAHAM RAHAL AT LAGUNA SECA
The 2024 race will mark the fifth for Graham Rahal at the track. He earned two poles in 2023 on a road course and is hoping for a strong performance in Laguna Seca’s final race for the current engine configuration before the hybrid motor makes its competition debut at the next event at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, July 7. In 2023, he was collected in an opening lap incident and retired in 27th place after starting 10th. In qualifying, he was seventh fastest in his group and failed to progress to Round 2 by less than 1/10th of a second. Four cars ahead of Rahal served a grid penalty so he started 10th. In 2022, he started on primary tires from 19th place and steadily climbed his way up the field. A pivotal decision came when the team opted to take on used alternate tires on his second stop compared to Lundgaard, who took on primary tires and ultimately finished fifth. The two had been running together with Rahal ahead in seventh place initially but the two swapped positions on Lap 57/95 and he fell four positions before the team elected to stop again for primary tires on Lap 61. He ultimately finished 18th, one lap down to the leaders. In 2021, Rahal started 12th and ran as high as fourth before his first stop on Lap 18/95. The handling of his race car was better halfway through his second stint, and he gained a few spots before he made his second stop from third place on Lap 40. He pit from second place for his third stop on Lap 67 and was able to leapfrog O’Ward by staying out longer. He held third place for 11 laps before Grosjean, whose tires had six less laps on them, passed him on Lap 84/95 and he held on to finish fourth. In 2019, he started eighth and lost two positions on the start to Hunter-Reay and Ferrucci. He dropped to 11th on Lap 5 when Rosenqvist passed him and cycled as high as fifth place before his second pit stop on Lap 39. He ran 10th for the majority of his next stint before his third and final stop and came out 11th. He later lost a position to Hunter-Reay on Lap 68 of 90 and ultimately took the checkered flag 12th. He has earned two poles in the past two road races and two poles of the last three races overall. He hopes to carry that momentum to a track that the team has had the most success on over the years.

“I feel good about heading to Monterey. I think our qualifying package was good last year. It was a shame not to be able to get very far into the race, but I hope we carry that same speed over. Also, I think we made some good improvements at the previous race at Road America that will help us at Laguna Seca so I’m looking forward to it. It’s always going to be a physical race there no matter the temperatures. It’s a very physical track with very little time to breathe. It’s very fast but I would imagine that in year two of the track surface, it may have a lost a little bit of the grip so it will be interesting to see how it is this time around. (On final race of the non-hybrid era:) It would be awesome to be a winner at Laguna in the final race before going into the hybrid era. I feel like we’ve had some pace at the road courses as of late and so hopefully we can start off the weekend on the right foot and build the pace through the weekend and be strong and give ourselves the chance to win.
“It’s extremely cool to have Mobil 1 as the primary sponsor this weekend. I absolutely love the gold car. I’m proud to represent Mobil 1, it’s a brand that has global recognition and one that has been in motorsports and has done so well so it’s very cool to have them with us and be part of the 50th anniversary celebration.”

PIETRO FITTIPALDI AT LAGUNA SECA
Pietro will make his first INDYCAR SERIES start at Laguna Seca. His highest starting position of the season is 11th at the Grand Prix at IMS and his highest finish is 13th at St. Pete and Detroit. He has continued to build momentum and is looking forward to competing at what he expects to be his favorite track of the season.

“It’s my first time to drive at Laguna Seca, an iconic track. I’ve heard a lot about it. I ran on it a lot on the simulator as well. Even on the simulator, it’s still one of my favorite tracks so it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out in real life, and if I enjoy it as much as I do on the sim. Bobby won four times in a row and my uncle Max Papis won this race for Bobby as well, so this team has a lot of history at this place. I hope I can one day add to that tally as well. Going into Laguna, we’ve been strong the road courses and we’ve had a lot of potential. We’ve been fast and practices and we’ve been up there in the races but just haven’t been able to 100 percent capitalized on our pace so I’m looking forward to being able to do that at Laguna. I’m looking forward to attempting to secure a top-10 finish which is the goal for the weekend and again learning the track as fast as I can during the first practice and evolving through that. It is the last non-hybrid race so the team is already heavily focused on the next race, which will have the hybrid system. It’s going to be a different variable for everyone. But looking at the performance with the non-hybrid, the car was good at Laguna Seca last year. The team knows what they’re doing so we’ve just got to focus on executing, gaining as many points as possible this weekend and continuing on our upwards trend into the hybrid era. I’m very much looking forward to the Laguna Seca race and also running Eurofarma colors. I strongly believe Laguna will be one of my favorite tracks as well.”

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD LOOKS FOR ANOTHER HISTORY-MAKING RACE AT LAGUNA SECA
Christian will make his third start here after some history-making runs in his previous two races here. In Round 2 of qualifying last year, he set a time of 1:06.4610, which is a new track record, well over Helio Castroneves’s qualifying lap record of 1:07.722, set in 2000. In the Firestone Fast Six, he was on a lap time that would have been four-tenths-of-a-second up and good enough for his third pole of the season but made a mistake in the Corkscrew and had to settle for third place. On the opening lap of the race, he came into contact with second-place starter McLaughlin in Turn 1, which set off a multi-car crash that involved teammates Rahal and Vips. He pit for repairs and new tires and the team battled back during a race that saw eight cautions for a total of 35 of the 95 laps and he ultimately finished sixth. In his first race at WRLS in 2022, Lundgaard clinched the Rookie of the Year title over David Malukas with a fifth-place finish after starting 16th. In the race, he steadily moved up the field after starting on primary tires while the majority of the field started on alternates, which turned out to be the best strategy. After setting the fastest time in Practice 1 in Portland and second fastest in Practice 2, the team was unable to maximize the potential there last weekend but plan to do that in the season finale. He is looking forward to getting to Laguna Seca and picking up where he left off after an impressive qualifying effort.

“I have good memories at Laguna Seca, obviously having won the rookie championship in 2022 which ultimately came down to the last race of the season. And then setting the track record in 2023 with the new pavement is something I’m incredibly proud of. It’s a very historical track that I always enjoy driving on. The new pavement made a huge difference last year and it’s going to be interesting this year. I think we might be challenging that lap time again. Overall, I’m excited for us to get back there and see if we can regain a little bit of momentum after Road America for the Hy-Vee team. I believe we had more performance than what we delivered so it will be good to get back to a track where we know we have unfinished business. I think we had a car to win last year, and we clearly had a car that could set a track record. It’s going to be a fun one but also it comes after a well-deserved first weekend off since the beginning of May. There will be a lot of happy faces in the INDYCAR paddock after a little bit of time off.”

BOBBY RAHAL AT LAGUNA SECA – 11 MAJOR WINS OVER HIS CAREER AS A DRIVER AND TEAM OWNER
Bobby Rahal captured his first major race win at Laguna Seca in the Can Am series in 1979 so it’s only fitting that the track has become the most successful for RLL overall as a team. After that Can Am win, Rahal went on to become the only driver to win four straight Indy car wins at the track from 1984-1987, the 1985 win coming from pole. A third place in 1992 brought him his fifth podium finish at the track. In terms of Indy car history at Laguna Seca, in 22 races from 1983-2004, the most wins other drivers have is two (Danny Sullivan 1988, 1990), Michael Andretti (1991-92), Paul Tracy (1993-94), Bryan Herta with RLL (1998-99), Patrick Carpentier (2003-04).

POINT STANDINGS AFTER 7 OF 17 RACES
Heading into Round 9 of 17, Lundgaard is in 11th place in the series standings with a total of 141 points, Rahal is 15th with 121 and Fittipaldi is 20th with 81.