NTT INDYCAR SERIES
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Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey – WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
Pre-Race Notes
Round 18 of 18 in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES
DATE: September 4-6, 2026
PRACTICE BROADCAST: Live on FS2 on Friday from 5:00–6:30 p.m. ET, live FS2 on Saturday from 1:00-2:30 p.m. ET and from 8:00–9:00 p.m. ET. Also live on the INDYCAR Radio Network (IRN) Sirius XM INDYCAR Nation 190 (*new channel) and www.indycar.com (timing & scoring + live analysis).
QUALIFYING BROADCAST: Live on FS2, the IRN and www.indycar.com (timing & scoring + live analysis) from 4:30-6:00 p.m. ET Saturday.
RACE BROADCAST: Live on FOX on Sunday, September 6 from 3:00 – 5:30 p.m. ET. And also on the IRN Sirius XM INDYCAR Nation 190.
TRACK LAYOUT: 2.258-mile, 11-turn road course
RACE LENGTH: 95 laps / 214.51 miles
2025 WINNER: Alex Palou
2025 POLESITTER: Alex Palou (1:08.3413 / 117.891 mph)
RAHAL’S BEST ROAD COURSE START / FINISH: 1st (IMS road course & Portland 2023) / 1st (Mid-Ohio 2015)
RAHAL’S BEST LAGUNA SECA START / FINISH: 8th in 2019 / 4th in 2021; will be his seventh 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) 2023 / 6 wins – 1st in St. Pete in 2008, Fontana & Mid-Ohio 2015, Texas 2016, Detroit Race 1 & Race 2 2017
FOSTER’S BEST ROAD COURSE START / FINISH: 1st (Road America 2025) / 7th (IMS road course 2026)
FOSTER’S BEST LAGUNA SECA START / FINISH: 9th / 17th – both in 2025; will be his second race here
FOSTER’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH: 2 Poles (Road America 2025, Markham 2026) / 7th (Indy GP and Detroit 2026)
SCHUMACHER’S BEST ROAD COURSE START / FINISH: 11th (Markham 2026) / 16th (Portland 2026)
SCHUMACHER’S BEST START / FINISH AT LAGUNA SECA: Will be his first race here, tested at the track on July 30
SCHUMACHER’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH: 4th (Phoenix oval 2026) / 8th (Nashville oval 2026)
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 AT THEIR WINNINGEST TRACK
The 2026 Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey will mark the 19th Indy car event for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and sixth here since 12 consecutive races at the track from 1992-2003. The team has also competed in ALMS and IMSA races here from 2009-2025 as BMW M Team RLL and has earned three wins, five poles and a total of 11 podium finishes – including a second-place finish from pole 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 2026 event, the team prepared a total of 38 Indy car entries for drivers Bobby Rahal (1992-98), Mike Groff (1994), Raul Boesel (1995), Bryan Herta (1996-99), Max Papis (1999-2001), Kenny Brack (2000-2001), Jimmy Vasser (2002), Michel Jourdain Jr. (2002-03), Graham Rahal (2019, 2021-25), Takuma Sato (2019, 2021), Oliver Askew (2021), Jack Harvey (2022), Christian Lundgaard (2022-23), Juri Vips (2023), Pietro Fittipaldi (2024) and Devlin DeFrancesco (2025). The No. 15 Ship Station entry for Graham Rahal, the No. 45 Desnuda Organic Tequila entry for Louis Foster and the No. 47 NEREUS entry will bring the Indy car total to 41 entries in 2026.
GRAHAM RAHAL AT LAGUNA SECA
The 2026 race will mark the seventh for Graham Rahal at the track. After some competitive runs on road and street courses this season, Rahal is hoping to end the season on a high at Laguna Seca. In 2025, he started eighth in a race that saw five full course cautions. Two cars were able to leapfrog him due to strategy, and two other drivers (Rassmussen and Armstrong) utilized their strong pace to pass on track. In 2024, he started 19th and was in 16th on Lap 86/95 when Canapino hit Simpson, who was turned sideways on the track right in front of Rahal, who had no choice but to T-bone him. 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 earned three podiums on road and street courses the first half of the season and hopes to return to that form for the season finale.
“I’m excited for Laguna; I love Laguna. Last year, I think we were decent. I wouldn’t say that we were great, but this will be a different time of year too. In the fall, the track is going to be a little grippier, and probably the conditions are a little cooler. But I’m excited to get out there and I’m excited to get the finale in the books. I’m looking forward to the offseason to get a reset and begin working on improvements because it’s hard to do midseason. I think we’ve got a lot of great ideas and concepts that we need to go into the fall with and meetings that need to be held. But it’s hard to do when you’re in the midst of a kind of punching bag time of year. But we have another opportunity ahead of us to end this season strong.
“We’ve been hit and miss on road courses this year. Weve been very strong some place and others we have struggled. I thought the Portland road course was a bit of a struggle, but Laguna in some ways is its own animal. It’s obviously very high peak new tire grip, and there is a lot of degradation throughout the race. So, managing that is critical and that’s something we’re going to try to do.”
FOSTER AIMS TO BACK UP POLE WINNING PERFORMANCE ON A ROAD COURSE
Having recently added a street course pole in Markham to the one he earned last season on the Road America road course, Foster is looking forward to returning to Laguna Seca. Last year he qualified ninth in his INDYCAR rookie season but struggled with race pace and he ultimately finished 17th so he is looking forward to the opportunity to better that mark. He competed here four times in the INDY NXT Series where he won both NXT races in 2024 from pole. In his first two NXT races here in 2023, he qualified sixth and finished 18th in Race 1 and turned that into a podium performance with a third-place finish from a third place start in Race 2. A strong performance at Laguna Seca would be a great way to enter the off-season.
“I think Laguna will be an interesting weekend. We’ve had some good performances on road courses and lesser at other road courses, so we’ve had a bit of a mix. Last year we struggled a lot as a team, and we didn’t have the pace we wanted to have so I’m hoping we can go into this weekend with a bit more a bit more performance and pace and see what we end up. We had a test there earlier this year with Mick and that went well so I’m hoping that they’ve learned something on the 47 car that we can transfer to the 45 and the 15. Since it’s a different time of year than last year, it will probably be a bit cooler than usual. Monterey can have some pretty interesting weather, especially in early September with fog and clouds with it being so close to the Pacific so we’ll see how that impacts the race weekend, but I imagine it will be quite a cool weekend. The corkscrew is super cool; its sick innit?”
SCHUMACHER AT LAGUNA SECA
Although this will be the first race for Mick at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, he tested there July 30th. His best start on a road or street course is 11th place in Markham (street course) and his best finishes are eighth place on the Nashville oval and 11th on the streets of Washington, D.C. He plans to continue the momentum he has been building since the start of the season and end on a high note. He is 18 points behind Rookie of the Year points leader Dennis Hauger (223-205). Caio Collet isn’t far behind with 193.
“The season went by super quickly. It was insane, but I guess it’s kind of expected with the schedule like this so I’m just excited to reflect back on everything and have a good understanding of what is going to be necessary for next year. I think there are a lot of highlights from this season. The big ones like Nashville (best finish to date) stand out. Washington was a great weekend for us too, and what was positive was all of these happened towards the end of the year so the goal of starting and being better than where we started at the end of it definitely was achieved so I think we can be proud of that. Phoenix started great (fourth place in qualifying) and unfortunately, I was a bit overwhelmed with the racing itself but I learned a lot. Indy was definitely a stand out as well as Washington, D.C. as an event so I’m excited to see what next year holds. Obviously, Indy is something that will definitely be in marker on my calendar.
“The Laguna test went pretty well, we learned a lot from it, so I think that will help us to roll off the truck and be right on the money. I think that’s what it takes in INDYCAR to be good and then be right up there with everybody in front. The pit lane position will obviously help as well. We had a good qualifying in Milwaukee and that is going to result in a good pit lane place in Laguna for qualifying and the race so that will make life a bit easier for strategy and everything else. The goal at Laguna is just to end on a high. It would be good to get the 47 entry in the Leaders Circle (top 22 in entrant points), which would be good for the team. The corkscrew is an amazing place; it is super fun to drive. I’m excited to see how Laguna races and if there are overtaking opportunities. From what I felt at the test, it was pretty low grip so normally that results in good racing. I’m happy to go race there. Let’s see what we can do.”
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). As part of the pre-race festivities, Rahal will take a lap in the car he won the 1986 Indy 500 in.
POINT STANDINGS AFTER 17 OF 18 RACES
Heading into Round 18 at the Mission Foods GP of Laguna Seca, Rahal is ranked 15th overall with 291 points. Foster is 19th with 251 points and Schumacher is 23rd with 205. Schumacher is 18 points from leader Dennis Hauger, in Rookie of the Year standings, 223-205.
