Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
105th Running of the Indianapolis 500
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
OPENING DAY NOTES/QUOTES – May 18, 2021
SATO, RAHAL AND FERRUCCI HAVE A PRODUCTIVE OPENING DAY AT INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY IN PREPARATION FOR THE INDY 500
1) Will Power 226.470 mph
3) Takuma Sato 226.132 mph
26) Graham Rahal 222.583 mph
32) Santino Ferrucci 220.718 mph
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 United Rentals Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It was not the end of the day we hoped for. Obviously to be the quickest in the morning, we expected a little more this afternoon. We did a lot of race running. We struggled quite a lot with the balance of the car; it seemed to be throwing us quite a curveball from the test to coming back here. It did this morning as well, but we just happened to put in a good one (lap). It seems like it’s going to be a bit of a challenge for us to get things honed back in here but we have to reset. I think the track’s going to change a lot over the next couple of days and we’ll see how she goes. The United Rentals boys are hard at work; I think we’ll be just fine. We’ll be competitive. The car has got speed, we’ve just got to get the balance a little better.”
TAKUMA SATO, No. 30 Panasonic / PeopleReady Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It’s really good to be back at IMS, particularly with the fans. I could see so many fans smiling and over there (across the track) all day waiting – it was great to see that. Well first of all I think we shook down the car very nicely because the last test we had a small issue but everything is sorted, so I’m really happy to be back in the car. The PeopleReady car is beautiful; it looks awesome. It was a very productive day. We did a solo run with the wing sweep and ride height things and all the check list. But also the group runs in the end for two big group runs so that was very productive. We already learned the positive side and the not so positive side so hopefully we can carry over good things for tomorrow.”
SANTINO FERRUCCI, No. 45 Hy-Vee Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It’s great to be back in Indy. Our Hy-Vee Honda is incredibly quick, even though we didn’t show it on the time sheets. We were down most of the afternoon session working on the car back on the pad. We went back out and ended the day in a pack of about seven cars and actually ended up going through it which was pretty awesome. It’s nice to be back racing with the guys. I’m looking forward to being back up on the top part of those (time) sheets in the next couple of days.”
NEXT UP: Practice will take place from 12-6 p.m. ET tomorrow. Get a behind-the-scenes look at preparations for the 105th Indianapolis 500 via the Digital Ally Garage Camera on www.rahal-staging.ktnlcqy7-liquidwebsites.com.