Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing PR

Lundgaard, Rahal and Harvey: Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio

Posted on by Patrick Stephan

Rahal Letterman Lanigan RacingNTT INDYCAR SERIES
Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
RACE NOTES/QUOTES – July 3, 2022

LUNDGAARD, RAHAL AND HARVEY FINISHED 11TH, 12TH AND 20TH IN THE HONDA INDY 200 AT MID-OHIO

GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Unfortunately, I think that ruins a streak of like 8-10 in a row in the Top-10 here, 6 Top-5’s in the last 8, so I’m disappointed. This isn’t the place we expect to finish 12th. We just didn’t have it today, I think we salvaged a decent result, but of course 12th isn’t what we are out here to do. It felt like we really struggled with the rear of the car which was an issue our entire weekend. Today was one of the harder races I’ve driven in the last 8-10 years. It just felt like I was on my back foot at all times and felt like I couldn’t attack in any regard. Turn the page, Toronto is coming up – I’ve started on the front row in Toronto before and finished well there. We did a lot of work in Sebring focused on Toronto and hope it can play out there and give this team a little shot in the arm.”

  • FAST FACTS: Started 18th and finished 12th in his 16th Indy car race here. His best start is fourth in 2009 and 2017 and his best finish is his win here in 2015. Prior to today’s race, he had 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… 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… He is 15th in series point standings with a total of 177.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD, No. 30 Hendrickson Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “The whole weekend, I think it’s been pretty clear we’ve had our ups and downs from session to session. But I think with the car we had this weekend I think coming home where we did based on where we started is good. We went forward and that’s the most important thing. We showed some pace as well, but we have some work to do.”

  • FAST FACTS: Lundgaard started 16th and finished 11th in his first race here. He has competed in nine INDYCAR SERIES races with a best start of 4th place (IMS road course 2021) and best finish of 9th (IMS road course, 2022)… He dropped one spot in the standings to 17th and is the highest ranked rookie with 159.

JACK HARVEY, 45 Hy-Vee Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I think that’s the most pit stops I’ve ever done on a road course before. We lack pace and I was struggling with grip. (On contact with Kellett:) I went into the corner and I was quite a bit behind him and honestly just slid too far and I caught the end of his car. That was unfortunate. I think that also just shows the problems we have right now of getting the tire going early. I was bad in Turn 1 on that restart and literally as he was slowing down I slid up into him and couldn’t do anything about it. Unfortunate day to take him out that way, because while we are having a bad race ourselves, we don’t need to make other people’s day worse, unfortunately we made his day worse.” 

  • FAST FACTS: Harvey started 24th and finished 20th in his sixth INDYCAR race here. He made six stops to the winner’s two due to having a cut tire and other things. He was also penalized for avoidable contact with Kellett.  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. He is 20th in series standings with 115 points.  

NEXT UP:  The series will take the next weekend off before returning to Canada for the first time since 2019 for the Honda Indy Toronto on July 15-17.