Rahal, Lundgaard and Harvey Third, 11th and 18th in Practice for INDYCAR’s Return to the Honda Indy Toronto for the First Time Since 2019
Rahal Letterman Lanigan RacingHonda Indy Toronto – Streets around Exhibition Place
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
PRACTICE NOTES/QUOTES – Friday, July 15, 2022
RAHAL, LUNDGAARD AND HARVEY THIRD, 11TH AND 18TH IN PRACTICE FOR INDYCAR’S RETURN TO THE HONDA INDY TORONTO FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2019
1st: Alexander Rossi 1:00.6090 / 106.083 mph
3rd: Graham Rahal 1:00.7031 / 105.919 mph
11th: Christian Lundgaard 1:01.1749 / 105.102 mph
18th: Jack Harvey 1:01.6580 / 104.278 mph
GRAHAM RAHAL, No 15 United Rentals Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “After the Sebring test, I thought what we learned would translate to here and the setup that we came out of there with is what we started with here . The car was quite good from the get-go and the United Rentals boys will keep working hard to continue to progress. We would have liked to see more pace on the Firestone reds than what we got out of it but ultimately being in the top three is very rewarding. To see these guys smiling after working hard to get here is nice.”
- FAST FACTS: Will be his 15th Indy car race here and 16th overall including his 2006 Atlantic race… In 14 Indy car races, his best Toronto start is second in 2017 and his best finish is fifth in 2010 with Newman/Haas Racing. He has three, top-five starts and five, top-10 finishes… 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… Rahal is 15th in series point standings with a total of 177.
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD, No. 30 HUB International Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Overall I was pretty comfortable. It was a good session for the team with Graham up in third on the reds and he was quite competitive on the blacks. As a rookie I have an extra set of tires but we didn’t manage to make it work because we went out quite late on the new blacks with one of the red flags there at the end and had a big rear locking in Turn 3 on that lap. I thought it was better to abort that set of tires and go out on the reds because we had to give them back after Practice 1 but I think overall as a team we progressed so what tomorrow brings will be exciting.”
- FAST FACTS: He has competed in 10 INDYCAR SERIES races with a best start of 4th place (IMS road course 2021) and best finish of 9th (IMS road course, 2022)… He is 17th place in series standings and is the highest ranked rookie with 159.
JACK HARVEY, 45 Hy-Vee Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I thought it was a pretty decent day. Right at the end of the session we had so much traffic and whatnot, we didn’t really get to show exactly what I thought we could do but I thought through most of it, globally as a team we looked a lot more competitive and happier. I think we’ve got a car that’s going to challenge this weekend. Ultimately you don’t want to get carried away, we’ve got work to do. We tried something in the session that didn’t work, that’s good because Graham tried something that seemed like it did. It seems like its going to be a more positive weekend for us.”
- FAST FACTS: Is making his first INDYCAR SERIES start in Toronto. He competed here in 2014 in Indy Lights where he started fourth and finished third. And also competed in the doubleheader here in 2015 where he started fourth in Race 1 and fifth in Race 2 and finished second in both. He is 20th in series standings with 115 points.
RLL AT TORONTO: The Honda Indy Toronto will mark the 21st year of Indy car racing for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) here. The team also competed in the Atlantic Series races here in 2003 and 2004. The team earned a total of four second place finishes (Rahal 1992, 1994, 1995; Michel Jourdain Jr. 2003) and best start was pole in 1992 by Bobby Rahal. The team has earned FIVE podiums (3rd – Rahal 1996), 9 top-five’s and 20 top-10 finishes at the track. The No. 15 United Rentals entry for Graham Rahal, the No. 30 HUB International entry for Christian Lundgaard and the No. 45 Hy-Vee entry for Jack Harvey will bring the Indy car total to 38 entries in 2022.
NEXT UP: Practice 2 will take place tomorrow from 10-11 p.m. ET and qualifying will be 2:00-3:15 p.m. ET. Timing and Scoring information is available for all sessions from www.indycar.com and includes commentary by the INDYCAR Radio Network. The 85-lap Honda Indy Toronto will be streamed live on Peacock beginning at 3 p.m. ET Sunday, July 17.