Rahal Letterman Lanigan RacingGallagher Grand Prix – Indianapolis Motor Speedway
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
QUALIFYING NOTES/QUOTES – July 29, 2022

LUNDGAARD EARNED HIS TOP START OF THE SEASON OF SIXTH FOR THE GALLAGHER GRAND PRIX; HARVEY AND RAHAL WILL START 13TH AND 17TH

1)         Felix Rosenqvist          1:10.2265 / 125.030 mph          (Group 2, Round 3)
6)         Christian Lundgaard    1:10.7280 / 124.143 mph          (Group 1, Round 3)
13)       Jack Harvey                 1:10.8564 / 123.918 mph          (Group 1, Round 1)
17)       Graham Rahal              1:10.9093 / 123.826 mph          (Group 1, Round 1)          

GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 One Cure Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I just never had it (in qualifying). Even on the blacks. On the blacks this morning, we were P3 and on the blacks (in qualifying) I was 10th or something. The rear of the car was not good. I will say we are fighting a major straight line deficit compared to my teammates. I think it was 3/10ths of a second compared to Christian in practice. It’s hard to make up, we ended up about a tenth down on him and we need to figure out why that is. But from practice, the car was completely different. We used an experimental setup that we will continue on with for tomorrow. Hopefully it races better than that tomorrow. The heat of the day like this, the track is throwing everybody a bit of a loop. I’m mightily disappointed for One Cure and for our whole team. All of us expected to be way faster than that. Christian advanced but we all felt our speed would be better.”

• FAST FACTS: The Gallagher Grand Prix will be Rahal’s 12th Indy car race on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He finished second on the road course at IMS in 2015 and 2020. In 2021 he finished fifth and seventh in May and August. Earlier this year at the Indy GP, he started 12^th, ran as high as sixth and finished 16^th after slick racing conditions and zero visibility led to him hitting Kirkwood and drawing a penalty… 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 currently ranked 13th in NTT INDYCAR SERIES point standings with 248.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD, No. 30 Shield Cleansers Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It was our best qualifying of the year here. The Indy road course has been good to me so far with qualifying fourth for this race last year. We didn’t quite make the fast six in May even though we should have. We were screwed a bit with a car going off the track ahead of us in May. We executed today and we got through to Round 3. I think we might have had a tenth more which would have put us up towards third or fourth instead of P6 but we executed the best we could for now so. The points are scored tomorrow so we’ll keep digging.”

• FAST FACTS: The 2022 July race will be his third on the IMS road course and 14th INDYCAR race overall. While an FIA Formula 2 driver, Lundgaard made his INDYCAR debut with the team at the August 14, 2021 Grand Prix at IMS. He earned a career best 4th place start and finished 12th. At the GMR Grand Prix in May, he started eighth and finished ninth. Intermittent rain and low visibility limited the possible performance… He is the highest ranked rookie in 16^th place in the point standings with 208.

JACK HARVEY, 45 Hy-Vee Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We just missed it a little bit today. We warmed up okay but I think things obviously changed a bit from when we were here in May. I don’t know if it’s just the temperature, but our No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda just wasn’t quite as good and we missed it by a little bit. I’m sure everyone has been talking about already but this track is separated not by tenths but by hundredths of seconds. It’s so close, so tight, there are so many great teams and drivers. Today unfortunately we just missed it but I think we’ve got a great race car. The car is really good on blacks. We’ll use the warmup wisely and just go forward in the race.”

• FAST FACTS: The race will mark the eighth INDYCAR Series event on the road course for Harvey and 12th overall including four Indy Lights races from 2014-2015. His highest series start is second place and he has accomplished the feat three times, including here (2020 – IMS road course, Road America Race 2; 2021 – St. Pete). The IMS road course is also the site of his highest series finish of third place in 2019. He has three top-three series starts on the IMS road course, which is a personal best of any track on the schedule. Earlier this year at the GMR Grand Prix at IMS, Harvey ran as high as third place in one of the craziest races in recent INDYCAR history but a penalty for making contact with Ericsson after leaving his pit box relegated him to the back of the field. He had been running seventh prior to his stop but some ahead were expected to pit soon for rain tires, so a podium was still in his sights. Once he went to the back of the field in 20^th place, he climbed up to 13^th before the race ended after 75 of the 85 laps due to a time limit after starting ninth. In Indy Lights, he competed in four races on the IMS road course and has two poles and two wins, three top-three starts, and three top-two finishes. Last year in the two IMS road course races, he started third and finished 23^rd in May and started seventh and finished sixth in August… He is ranked 22nd with 148 points. 

RLL AT THE IMS ROAD COURSE…. The Gallagher Grand Prix will mark the 13th NTT INDYCAR SERIES race on the 2.439-mile road course. The team’s best finish here is second in 2015 and July 4, 2020 by Rahal and the best start is fourth in 2020 by Rahal and 2021 Race 2 by Lundgaard.

NEXT UP:  Warmup for the Gallagher Grand Prix will take place from 8:15-8:45 AM and NBC will begin coverage of the 85-lap race at 12 p.m. ET on Saturday.