Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
REV Group Grand Prix at Road America – RACE 2
NTT INDYCAR SERIES – Round 4 of 14
RACE NOTES/QUOTES – Sunday, July 12, 2020
SATO FINISHED EIGHTH IN RACE 2 OF THE REV GROUP GRAND PRIX OF ROAD AMERICA AFTER STARTING 12TH; RAHAL STARTED FIFTH BUT WAS TAKEN OUT ON THE OPENING LAP
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I’m okay (after the crash). I’m sorry for Fifth Third Bank and for all of our partners that were hoping for a good day just like us. It’s disappointing to see desperation moves like that, that early in the race. I’ve made them before so I know them well. We’re okay from the hit. It was a disappointing end to our race today and we had a really good chance for a good finish. It was extremely short with only doing one turn. I’m pretty upset with the way it all worked out but we’ve got Iowa next week and we’ve got to look ahead and try to do a better job there. We had a good car this weekend. Our guys did a good job but it’s just a shame we didn’t get a chance at it today.”
TAKUMA SATO, No. 30 Panasonic / Mi-Jack Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “From yesterday, we couldn’t get the balance right so overnight we had to change quite a lot so it was a little bit of a gamble to go into qualifying with the unknowns. We had to take two new (sets of) reds tires for qualifying, which was a sacrifice for the race, but we improved our starting position, which was good. At the start, the guys in front had a big crash and I had nowhere to go and lost a lot of positions, like the last three races. We gradually came back and I think the boys did a fantastic job on the pit stops. We gained quite a lot of positions so in the end fighting for eighth place is not ideal but the to be racing with the Penske’s, I don’t think was too bad. Hopefully next week at Iowa continues the trend of improving finishing positions from 10th, ninth and now eighth. We will definitely try.”
NEXT UP: The Iowa INDYCAR 250’s will take place next Friday and Saturday nights, July 17-18.