Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing PR

Rahal Fifth, Harvey Seventh & Lundgaard 25 in Friday’s Lone Practice for the Firestone GP of St. Pete

Posted on by Patrick Stephan

Rahal Letterman Lanigan RacingFirestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
PRACTICE NOTES/QUOTES – Friday, February 25, 2022

RAHAL FIFTH, HARVEY SEVENTH AND LUNDGAARD 25TH IN FRIDAY’S LONE 45 MINUTE PRACTICE FOR THE FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG

1)         Romain Grosjean                  1:01.0525 / 106.138 mph
5)         Graham Rahal                       1:01.3683 / 105.592 mph      
7)         Jack Harvey                           1:01.4903 / 105.382 mph
25)       Christian Lundgaard             1:02.5246 / 103.639 mph

GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 United Rentals Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Practice 1 was generally good. We were P5 and fairly competitive to get going here with Jack in P7. We are generally good but still have some weaknesses in the car that we need to work through. But I would say for day one we are pretty pleased with the performance and the competitiveness. We’ll put our head down, try to improve a little in the morning, get the car a little more neutral, and ready to qualify and then go from there. We’re feeling good so far.” 

  • FAST FACTS: Will make his 15th Indy car start at the track… His best start here is pole in 2009 and best finish is a win in 2008 in his IndyCar Series debut – both history-making moments at the time as he became the youngest race winner in series history (2008), and youngest pole winner in series history (2009). Both records were eclipsed in 2019 by Colton Herta but he held them for 10 and 11 years, respectively.  Overall, he has earned one top-five and seven top-10 starts here and has two top-five and five top-10 finishes. Year-by-year details are available upon request… Has SIX INDYCAR SERIES wins (2008 – St. Pete street course; 2015 – Fontana Super Speedway, Mid-Ohio road course; 2016 – Texas Super Speedway; 2017 Detroit Race 1, Detroit Race 2) and three poles (2009 – St. Pete street course, Kansas oval; 2017 – Detroit Race 1 street) and his highest series season-ending standing is fourth place in 2015.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD, No. 30 Panasonic / Shield Cleansers Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “St. Pete was a fun experience, I think there’s still a little bit of improvements to be made. It was a short session in the end, just an install, get out there and get running. I had an extra set of tires at the end but we got blocked on basically all the laps, so didn’t really manage to get a lap time in at the end. It’s tricky, but we will crack on and understand where to gain some time.”

  •  FAST FACTS: The 2022 race will be his second INDYCAR race and first in St. Pete.  In his lone race in the series in 2021 with RLL, he surprised many when he qualified on the second row in fourth place and went on to finish 12th despite a condensed event schedule.

JACK HARVEY, No. 45 Hy-Vee Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It was a pretty good day, really. I think we had a little bit more pace than what we showed which is textbook driver answer for P1, right? But I think the thing I was happy with, we had so much positivity coming into this weekend and just to get the ball rolling on a positive is really the big takeaway. There’s not much time to get used to everybody, for teams to get used to me, for me to get used to them and everything has been so easy and seamless. We’ve got pace to go and show just by putting the lap together a bit better. Pretty happy with the 45 HyVee Honda right now, so just going to keep chipping away, I think we ended some 7th or something but we want to do better than that.”

  • FAST FACTS: The 2022 race will be his fifth here and 50th start in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES.  To date, he has started in the top-five two of four races and has two, top-10 finishes with his best being fourth place last year. His first 49 previous starts came with Meyer Shank Racing (MSR), MSR with Arrow SPM or MSR with Andretti Autosport, where he earned a top start of second place three times – including at St. Pete last year – and top finish of third at the Indy GP in 2019.

NEXT UP:  Practice 2 will take place from 9:00 – 9:45 a.m. ET tomorrow and qualifying will take place from 12:30 – 1:45 p.m. and be televised live on Peacock Premium.  The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will be televised live on NBC beginning at 12 PM ET Sunday, February 27 and the Green Flag will fly at 12:30 PM ET.