Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Pre-Race Notes
Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio – Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
Round 9 of 17 in the 2022 NTT INDYCAR SERIES

DATE: July 1-3, 2022

PRACTICE BROADCAST: Live on Peacock Premium on Friday from 3:30 – 4:45 p.m. ET, on Saturday from 9:30 – 10:30 a.m. and Sunday from 9:45 – 10:15 a.m. ET. Also live on the INDYCAR Radio Network (IRN) and www.indycar.com (timing & scoring + live analysis).

QUALIFYING BROADCAST: Live on Peacock Premium, the IRN and www.indycar.com (timing & scoring + live analysis) from 2:45 – 4:00 p.m. ET Saturday.

RACE BROADCAST: Live on NBC Sunday, July 3 from 12:30 – 3:00 p.m. ET. And also, on Peacock Premium, IRN, Sirius 211 and XM 205

TRACK LAYOUT: 2.258-mile, 13-turn road course
RACE LENGTH: 80 laps / 180.64 miles

2021 WINNER: Josef Newgarden
2021 POLESITTER: Simon Pagenaud (1:03.8700, 127.271 mph

RAHAL’S BEST MID-OHIO START / FINISH: 4th in 2009 (NHLR) and 2017 (RLL) / 1st in 2015 with RLL; will be his 16th Indy car race here and 250th series start
RAHAL’S HIGHEST SERIES START / FINISH: 3 Poles – St. Pete (street) 2009, Kansas (oval) 2009, Detroit (street) 2017 / 6 Wins – St. Pete 2008, Fontana (oval; 500 miles) 2015, Mid-Ohio (road) 2015, Texas (oval) 2016; Detroit Race 1 2017, Detroit Race 2 2017

LUNDGAARD’S BEST START/FINISH AT MID-OHIO: First race here
LUNDGAARD’S BEST SERIES START / FINISH: 4th – ’21 Indy GP, Race 2 / 9th – ’22 Indy GP

HARVEY’S BEST START / FINISH AT MID-OHIO: 5th / 7th – both in 2020 in Race 1; will be his 6th race here
HARVEY’S HIGHEST SERIES START / FINISH: 2nd – Indy GP & Road America (2020), St. Pete 2021 / 3rd at the Indy GP (2019)

RLL’S BEST START / FINISH AT MID-OHIO: Pole 1997 (Herta) / 1st 2015 (G. Rahal)

NEWS & NOTES:

BACK TO THE BEGINNING FOR RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING
The 2022 Honda Indy 200 will mark the 26th Indy car event for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) at Mid-Ohio Sports Car course, near the team’s original base of Hilliard, Ohio. The team also competed in the Atlantic Series race in 2003 with Danica Patrick and has competed in ALMS races here in 2007 and from 2009-2012 and IMSA races since 2018. The team has earned four podiums (1st – G. Rahal 2015; 3rd – B. Rahal 1997, 1998, G. Rahal 2017), 15 top-five’s and 24 top-10 finishes at the track and the highest start is pole (Herta 1997). Another front row start came in 1999 (Herta; 2nd). Prior to the 2022 event, the team prepared a total of 41 Indy car entries for drivers Bobby Rahal (1992-98), Mike Groff (1994), Raul Boesel (1995), Bryan Herta (1996-99), Max Papis (1999-2001), Jimmy Vasser (2002), Michel Jourdain Jr. (2002-03) Ryan Hunter-Reay (2007-2008), Takuma Sato (2012, 2018-20, two races in ’20, 121), James Jakes (2013), Graham Rahal (2013-2020, 2 races in ’20, ‘21) and Santino Ferrucci (’21). The team will enter the No. 15 Fifth Third Bank entry for Graham Rahal, the No. 30 Hendrickson entry for Christian Lundgaard and the No. 45 Hy-Vee entry for Jack Harvey and will bring that total to 44 in 2022.

GRAHAM AT HOME AT MID-OHIO
The 2022 Honda Indy 200 will mark Rahal’s 16th Indy car race here. His best start is fourth in 2009 and 2017 and his best finish is his win here in 2015. He has finished in the top-five, six times in his past eight races here. In total, he has one win (2015), two podiums (2017), six top-five and 10 top-10 finishes in his 15 races here including a pair of fourth place finishes in the doubleheader in 2020. In 2021, he started eighth and finished sixth. Year-by-year recaps are available upon request. He has also competed in many other series at his “home track.” In addition to Indy car races here, at the age of 16 in 2005, Rahal became the youngest to claim the SCCA National Formula Atlantic championship at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs here by a dominant 43-seconds. He also competed in the Star Mazda race here in 2005 (S/F 4/9) and tested a Grand Am car here in 2007. He’s looking forward to carrying some momentum from the previous road course race at Road America here and returning home.
“It’s always great to be home in Central Ohio. I think it’s been a great place for us over the years. If we look at our record, we have 10 top-10’s, six top-five’s, six of the last eight in the top-five, and of course a win there in 2015 and podium in ’17. We have very high hopes and expectations as we always do when we go back to Mid-Ohio. There are some things from Road America that I think will carry over, however we had a big test at Sebring before the race where we worked on developing a lot of the damper stuff and figure out where our weaknesses are and try to improve in that regard. Obviously at Road America we did not qualify well so we need to improve as best as we can and get the Fifth Third Bank car up front. I’d love to get a podium or a win there at home. Fourth of July weekend is a big weekend for everybody. We can’t wait to be back in Central Ohio.”

CHRISTIAN LOOKS FORWARD TO ANOTHER ROAD COURSE
Lundgaard had a competitive weekend at the last round at Road America and stands a good chance of having another one this weekend in Ohio. His best start and finish in the series has come on a road course (IMS road course 4th in 2021 / 9th in 2022) and he looks forward to another opportunity to test his ability.
“I’ve done some simulation work at Honda and at home in my own sim as well. The Mid-Ohio track itself is pretty cool. It’s a challenging road course and I know a lot of drivers like the track. It’s tough to overtake on and I’ve heard it’s my style so let’s crack on and get a good result there. We learned a lot of stuff in Road America and also learned a lot at our tests in Sebring and Iowa, so it was a productive break. I feel like we’re starting to solve a lot of our challenges or at least get a better understanding of them so we’re in a better position now going into Mid-Ohio and that’s positive. I’m looking forward to getting out on the road course. I’ve heard it’s pretty slippery in the wet and it looks like it’s going to rain for some of the weekend so it’s going to be a fun first time for me.”

JACK AND THE SITE OF HIS FIRST WIN IN NORTH AMERICA
The Honda Indy 200 will mark Jack’s sixth race here. In his five previous races, his best start of fifth and best finish of seventh both came in Race 1 in 2020. In the Indy Lights series, he won from pole at Mid-Ohio in Race 1 and 2 in 2014 and started second and finished 11th in Race 1 of 2015 and started from pole and finished 10th in Race 2 that same year. The team made good progress at the previous race at Road America and Jack hopes to carry the momentum over to Mid-Ohio.
“I’m looking forward to Mid-Ohio. There is good energy heading there. I’ve got a lot of good memories at Mid-Ohio. I’ve always felt like I’ve had some good speed there but maybe not gotten the end result we want yet in INDYCAR. I got my first win in Indy Lights there so my first win in North America came at Mid-Ohio. Its always a track I personally enjoy driving at. Obviously, with it being Bobby and Graham’s home race, and one of the home races for the team, we’re all really hopeful we can have a great weekend. There is some good optimism heading into the weekend and hopefully we can get it done.”

POINT STANDINGS AFTER 8 OF 17 RACES
Heading into Round 9 at the Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio, Rahal has a total of 159 points and is ranked 15th overall. Lundgaard is the highest ranked rookie in 16th with 140 points and Harvey is 20th with 105.