Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
103rd Running of the Indianapolis 500
NTT IndyCar Series
QUALIFYING NOTES/QUOTES – Saturday, May 18, 2019
SATO, RAHAL AND KING QUALIFIED FOR THE INDY 500; WILL START 14TH, 17TH AND 26TH RESPECTIVELY AFTER A DAY FULL OF EXCITEMENT
14th: Takuma Sato 4-lap avg. of 228.300 mph (L1: 228.779, L2: 228.257, L3: 227.866, L4: 228.299)
17th: Graham Rahal 4-lap avg. of 228.104 mph (L1: 228.565, L2: 228.333, L3: 228.254, L4: 227.270)
26th: Jordan King 4-lap avg. of 227.502 mph (L1: 227.789, L2: 227.702, L3: 227.444, L4: 227.075)
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 United Rentals Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I just felt we underperformed today a little bit and our guys stayed calm. I can’t thank the United Rentals team enough for that. Allen (McDonald, race engineer) did a good job there. We had a tough decision to make after that second run. I think everyone felt that we could go a lot quicker. We just needed to go out and put it together. We thought the car didn’t reflect the pace; it was close to being ideal. It just takes a little tweak here and there and we got it right. Had the driver not screwed up on Turn 3 of the last lap there, I think we would’ve started 13th or 14th I moved my weight jacker all the way to the right and unfortunately, that’s not ideal and we had to lift. To start where we start I’ll take it. It takes some balls, man (to withdraw the previous qualifying time). I think Rico (Ricardo Nault, team manager) and I both felt like the car was way more capable than where we were at on the chart. I knew the risk is you have to qualify tomorrow the reward is that we could qualify. I knew that we were a lot better than where we were and ultimately, fortunately, it worked out. Starting 17th was better than starting 28th.”
TAKUMA SATO, No. 30 Mi-Jack / Panasonic Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Qualifying day is reasonably stressful. The pressure’s on, but usually, it’s a quite exciting day for the qualifying. It was a tough day. It was warm with gusty wind. Nobody had a perfect car I don’t think. The morning runners from 11-12 p.m. got a bit of a condition advantage, but then after that, we all struggled due to the temperature. I’m kind of half satisfied. The reason was we just couldn’t make the most of it. I ended up lifting on my third lap which cost me 0.1 mile down on average. It didn’t make a position difference but in the end, you want to make the most of it which was a little bit of a shame. But having said that I think with the conditions and the circumstances, the team did a good job and we have decent speed. I’m glad to be in the show. We will just focus now for the next few days for making the best out of the racecar.”
JORDAN KING, No. 42 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone: (On his third, full qualifying attempt after this first was waved off due to debris:) “Whatever percent I went quicker it felt that much better. We were chased by a margin of the whole field separated by thousands of a second. That was a good run. It was pretty consistent. I think my drop off was only half a mile an hour which is probably the best out there. I think the outright speed isn’t quite where it was in the 27’s, so gave me some breathing room. The first run was so mismatched with a yellow flag and then it was a bit of a fuffle to get ourselves back out, actually just go again and keep our cool. The team did a great job staying relaxed, getting the car ready and making those small adjustments now we’ve got ourselves some breathing room.”
NEXT UP: Practice for those in the Fast 9 will take place from 10:15-10:45 a.m. tomorrow and practice for the last row will take place from 10:45-11:15 a.m. All three RLL drivers will participate in the group practice session from 3:15-6:00 p.m. NBC will cover the action from 12-3 p.m. and NBCSN will cover from 3-6 p.m. All times Eastern