Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis – QUALIFYING NOTES/QUOTES – May 8, 2015

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis
Verizon IndyCar Series
QUALIFYING NOTES/QUOTES – May 8, 2015

RAHAL QUALIFIED 17TH FOR THE ANGIE’S LIST GRAND PRIX OF INDIANAPOLIS

1) Will Power 1:09.4886 / 126.357 mph (Group 1, Round 3)
17) Graham Rahal 1:10.6480 / 124.284 mph (Group 1, Round 1)

GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Steak ‘n Shake Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It’s frustrating to not be able to qualify better. We’ve been pretty good in practice but the Chevy’s somehow crank it up in qualifying. We didn’t have any more. Maybe there was another couple of 100ths (of a second) in the car but I didn’t have two-tenths. It’s frustrating because we had a lot of momentum coming in to this race. This Steak ‘n Shake team has just got to try to have a good, clean day tomorrow and hopefully we can move our way forward. I hope it rains given where we qualified.”

FAST FACTS: After starting the past two races from eighth place, Rahal will start tomorrow’s race from 17th place… It will be his second Indy car race on the IMS road course… In the two previous ICS races, Graham started eighth in NOLA and Barber. In the inaugural race on the road course, he started 12th, ran as high as sixth and was 11th when he was hit by Montoya on a restart on Lap 51/82 and ultimately finished 21st… Rahal is hot off one of the best runs of his career at the previous race at Barber Motorsports Park. He returned to the track in sixth place from his final pit stop with 19 laps to go and was 21-seconds behind race leader Josef Newgarden. By the time he passed reigning series champion Will Power and then Ryan Hunter-Reay for fourth, he was still 18.9 seconds behind Newgarden but in the final 11 laps he turned lap times that were one-to-two-seconds faster than the race leader and passed Castroneves. On the final lap he passed second-place Scott Dixon and closed the gap to eventual winner Newgarden to 2.2-seconds… His best qualifying position of the season so far is eighth and best finish is second – both at Barber… He is ranked eighth in series point standings with a total of 103 and is only seven points out of sixth (Hinchcliffe & Kanaan, 110) and nine points out of fifth place (Will Power, 112).

RLL AT INDY ROAD COURSE…. The Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis will mark the second Verizon IndyCar Series race on the 2.439-mile road course. Last year the team prepared entries for Graham Rahal and Oriol Servia. Rahal started 12th, ran as high as sixth and was 11th when he was hit by the lapped car of Montoya on a restart on Lap 51/82 and ultimately finished 21st. Servia qualified 22nd and was struck by the flying tire of another car after the standing start. He was forced to pit for a new front wing which put him out of sequence. Later he led seven laps but the team’s hope to capitalize on a caution flag didn’t pan out and he had to pit for a late-race splash of fuel which limited him to a 12th place finish.

NEXT UP: Warm-up will take place tomorrow from 11:30-12:00 p.m. ET. Timing and Scoring information and live streaming video is available for all sessions from www.indycar.com and includes live commentary by the IMS Radio Network. The Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis will be televised live on ABC at 3:30 PM ET Saturday, May 9.