Harvey, Rahal and Lundgaard: Bommarito Automotive Group 500 Qualifying
Rahal Letterman Lanigan RacingBommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
QUALIFYING NOTES/QUOTES – August 19, 2022
HARVEY, RAHAL AND LUNDGAARD QUALIFIED 15TH, 17TH AND 19TH, RESPECTIVELY, IN THE BOMMARITO AUTOMOTIVE GROUP 500
POLE: Will Power 2-lap avg. speed of 182.727 mph (L1: 24.6757, L2: 24.5782 mph)
15th: Jack Harvey 2-lap avg. speed of 178.775 mph (L1: 25.1626, L2: 25.1800 mph)
17th: Graham Rahal 2-lap avg. speed of 178.657 mph (L1: 25.2192, L2: 25.1568 mph)
19th: Christian Lundgaard 2-lap avg. speed of 178.165 mph (L1: 25.3216, L2: 25.1935 mph)
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 iPacket Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I’m pretty surprised about qualifying to be frank. I expected a lot more than that. This morning it was relatively easy to do that 25.0 pace but obviously I couldn’t replicate it at all in qualifying; I wasn’t even close. It’s disappointing. In Turns 3 and 4, it felt like I had about 60 percent of the grip that I did earlier. We made no changes, just a different set of tires. I don’t know why that is. We need to find a little bit more. Our race pace looked good.”
- FAST FACTS: The 2022 race will be Rahal’s seventh at the track. His highest start is seventh and highest finish is 10th – both in 2018. The 2022 race will be Rahal’s seventh race at the track. His highest start is seventh place and highest finish is 10th – both in 2018. In 2021, he was looking forward to the race after the having a strong performance on long runs in the practice session where he ended fourth fastest. He qualified ninth and made a conservative start and dropped back to 12th. Ed Jones appeared to lose traction in the rear of his car and slid up into Rahal in Turn 1 and the two collided. Jones stopped on track and Rahal was able to continue to the pits but had substantial damage. The team tried to repair the car, first behind pit lane and then later in the garage area but had to retire from the event. In 2021, he struggled in qualifying which led to 22nd and 23rd-place starting spots for Race 1 and 2, respectively. A napkin hindered his performance in Race 1 and he soldiered on in Race 2 but neither race was indicative of his usual performance that saw him finish third in the previous short oval race in 2020 at Iowa Speedway (Race 2). 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 ranked 13th in series point standings with a total of 281.
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD, No. 30 Mi-Jack Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I think our qual run was quite decent. I wasn’t quite happy with the car this morning after practice so we went closer to what Graham had, and he was quick in practice. I underestimated the grip, I think, in the quali run but the points are tomorrow.”
- FAST FACTS: Lundgaard participated in a rookie test at WWTR last Thursday, August 11 and was thankful for the additional track time to work on areas that can help the team in the future. His best oval finish is 10th place in Race 1 of the Hy-Vee INDYCAR Weekend. Will make his first start at WWTR and fifth oval race of his career… 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 decent run. The laps were pretty consistent. I needed a little more rotation just to try to get through Turns 1 and 2 a little better but that was probably my only limiting factor really. At this track, hundredths-of-a-second really make such a huge different. If we left a little bit on the table in balance obviously that’s going to hurt us a little bit. I think the cars unloaded pretty decent. I didn’t quite have Graham’s pace in practice but I think we made a good step and improved since the practice session. I think we’ve got some momentum right now. We’ve just got to keep chugging away.”
- FAST FACTS: This will be his fourth INDYCAR SERIES start at WWTR. He has one top-5 start of fifth in Race 2 in 2020 and two top-10 starts with a seventh place in Race 1 in 2020. His best finish to date is 10th place in 2021 and he also has an 11th (2020 Race 1) and 13th place (2020 Race 2) finish. He is ranked 21st with 178 points.
NEXT UP: Final practice will take place tonight from 7:45 – 8:45 p.m. ET. USA Network will begin live coverage of the 260-lap Bommarito Automotive Group 500 on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET and the field will take the Green Flag at 6:30 p.m. ET.