Music City Grand Prix of Nashville

Rahal Letterman Lanigan RacingBig Machine Music City Grand Prix
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
RACE NOTES/QUOTES – August 7, 2022

LUNDGAARD RAN SECOND IN THE CLOSING STAGE OF THE BIG MACHINE MUSIC CITY GRAND PRIX OF NASHVILLE AND FINISHED EIGHTH; HARVEY WAS 10TH AND RAHAL RETIRED IN 23RD

GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 United Rentals Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I couldn’t see anything. The most frustrating part for me is trying to understand why the check-up happened. It seemed like somebody ahead had a problem but obviously I hit Pato exceptionally hard. At that part of the track, to be frank, I’m so far up under the gearbox anyway. I’m sorry to Pato. For us it broke the rear tow-link amongst other things so I’m disappointed. The yellow before that hurt our strategy quite a lot but we were able to have a good restart. It’s just disappointing for the United Rentals team.” 

  • FAST FACTS: Rahal started ninth and ran 10th until the pit cycle started. After his first stop on Lap 23/80 during a FCC for Castroneves, who spun, he was running 10th when the field checked up ahead of him and Pato ran into Power and Rahal ran into O’Ward. He damaged his front wing and was dragging it under the front of this car until he made it back to the pits. The team replaced the wing and he returned to the track but hit the wall at the end of pit out. The crew took the car behind the pits and repaired the front and rear suspension on the right side due to the high number of incidents and potential to gain valuable points. Once he was back on track, the car was bottoming and he hit the wall on the bridge. He was checked and release by the media team… In the inaugural race here last year, Rahal drove to a fifth place finish after qualifying 13th… 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 in 13th place in series point standings with a total of 281.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD, No. 30 Shield Cleansers Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “This was probably the most ups and downs we’ve had in one race for sure. We lost a position at the start. We struggled all weekend with braking stability, and balance.  It was very, very difficult to find out why. I had a big lock up on the restart on the primary tires. I had to do a full stint on a big flat spot that was basically undriveable. I couldn’t brake anywhere; it was quite tough. There was a yellow, which we caught, which was very, very lucky, and we moved up the whole field into third and sort of regained our race. We are struggling to get the tires working under cautions and honestly, it’s like driving on ice. It’s so difficult to have a balance and know where you’re at, you’re just driving around on ice cubes and we lost a lot of position at the end because of that and our braking balance. We sort of backed up our Indy result throughout the whole weekend and in qualifying. The race might not look like it but we were down in 10th before that caution anyways so we were lucky and unlucky.”

  • FAST FACTS: Started third and was passed by Palou on the start to run fourth. He made his first stop from second place on Lap 23 under caution and ran in the top-10 for the next stint as there were some drivers on a different pit stop strategy. When Rahal and Veekay brought out the caution from Laps 52-55, many jumped in the pits and Lundgaard cycled into third place. He ran his best lap of the race on Lap 60-80 from third place and took over second when Newgarden had to pit for fuel on Lap 66. He held second through one restart but dropped to third place on Lap 76/80 when McLaughlin passed him. A red flag came out for nearly 12 minutes when Grosjean crashed and on the restart on Lap 78/80, Lundgaard dropped from third to eighth place… Finished P1 for the first time in a practice session in Practice 1 on Friday and earned his best INDYCAR starting position of third. The Shield Cleansers livery features a design inspired by the band O.A.R., who is in concert Saturday night at Ascend Amphitheatre and has a partnership with team partner Sugarlands Distilling… Arrived to Nashville fresh off a career best second place finish at the Gallagher GP and IMS… Will be his first race here and 15th in the INDYCAR SERIES… He is the highest ranked rookie in 15th place in the point standings with 272.

JACK HARVEY, 45 Hy-Vee Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It was a pretty eventful race. I’ll have to dissect that one because I feel like we had two front wing changes and a bunch of pit stops, a bunch of yellows and a red flag and to come out in the top-10 it was a pretty good race in the end. It’s kind of fair for where I feel our speed has been for the weekend. It was a good result for the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda. All you need sometimes is a bit of momentum. I don’t care how you get it as long as you get it and I think we’re starting to build it.”

  • FAST FACTS: He started 11th and took the checkered flag in ninth place but was given a post-race penalty for avoidable contact with Pagenaud and dropped one position to 10th… Qualified sixth and finished 15th in the inaugural race here in 2021… He is ranked 22nd with 178 points.  

NEXT UP:  The series will take next weekend off after holding fife races in the past four weeks. The Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at WWT Raceway will take place on Saturday, August 20.