Bommarito 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway – RACE NOTES/QUOTES – August 20, 2022

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Bommarito 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
RACE NOTES/QUOTES – August 20, 2022


RAHAL FINISHED 10TH IN THE BOMMARITO AUTOMOTIVE GROUP 500 AFTER LEADING TWO LAPS; LUNDGAARD FINISHED 19TH AND HARVEY 24TH AFTER RUNNING IN THE TOP-10

GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 iPacket Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It was a top-10 finish for us in the iPacket car. I was expecting a lot more there after the red. I thought we’d have a lot more pace than that. We got boxed in on the restart and that was pretty much it for us. We struggled more with the rear of the car, struggled to keep up with Helio ahead, which was difficult. I’m frustrated because I thought we would have more coming to the close there but I’m proud of the guys for keeping their heads down. A top-10 if okay but obviously not what we’re going for. We’re going for top-five’s and wins but it is what it is. We’ll take the points and move on.” 

  • FAST FACTS: Rahal started 17th and worked his way into the lead for two laps (211-212) before his fourth and final pit stop on Lap 212 in the 260 laps race but right after he stopped, a caution came out for weather conditions on Lap 214 and the race was red flagged at 6:55 p.m. CT with Rahal in ninth. After a two-hour delay for lightning and to dry the track from a shower, the field restarted their engines at 9:05. Ericsson and Dixon, who were ahead of Rahal, pit for fresh tires and fuel as did Palou, when the pits opened. Rahal took the green flag from seventh place but was passed by Dixon and Ericsson on the restart and Palou a few laps later. He held his position and took the checkered flag in 10th place…  It was Rahal’s seventh race 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 moved up one position into 12th in series point standings with a total of 302.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD, No. 30 Mi-Jack Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It was a tough race. The whole race I was boxed in with a lot of different balances in the car and then changing the tools in the car, which makes one of them worse but doesn’t help the others. It was just super tough to work around and I was at the point where I just wanted to get the car home in one piece. We were the first car to be two laps down so there wasn’t much to play for.”

  • FAST FACTS: Lundgaard qualified and finished 19th in the race… He 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 283 but David Malukas, who finished second and has 272, closed the gap to 11 points.

JACK HARVEY, 45 Hy-Vee Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Our car was actually really solid. We had a really good first couple of pit sequences and we managed to get ourselves in the top-10. I got stuck behind Carpenter at the end of one of my stints and was quicker than him, but he just wasn’t giving anything up. He pit, I got in clean air, got going again and found him again in that stint. And he checked up a bunch in Turn 4, kind of on the bottom, and I was that much quicker than him, I just tried to roll the middle, not super-high, just the middle and I just washed up and caught the wall. I guess at the part of the race, the high line wasn’t working and I guess there were some marbles. We did the high line practice yesterday and that’s where I ran from. Honestly, when I went to that part of the track, I was confident it was going to stick and I didn’t stick so I was really disappointed.”

  • FAST FACTS: Started 15th and was the first to make a pit stop, which helped him move into the top-10 later in the race. He was in ninth place on Lap 142 and made contact with the wall in Turn 4 and slowed on course. He was able to continue into the pits and the team repaired damage to the right rear of his race car.  He was more than 10 laps down when he returned to the track in 24th place. He continued on through the yellow for weather conditions, the red flag and race restart. No other cars had issues and he finished in 24th place…  This was 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 184 points.  

NEXT UP:  The series will take next weekend off before returning to action for the Grand Prix of Portland on Sunday, September 4.