Fast Friday is in the Books; Qualifying for the 107th Running of the Indy 500 Begins Saturday
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing107th Running of the Indianapolis 500
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
FAST FRIDAY NOTES/QUOTES – May 19, 2023
FAST FRIDAY IS IN THE BOOKS; QUALIFYING FOR THE 107TH INDIANAPOLIS 500 BEGINS SATURDAY
1) Takuma Sato 234.753 mph
29) Katherine Legge 231.4204 mph
31) Jack Harvey 231.166 mph
32) Christian Lundgaard 231.153 mph
33) Graham Rahal 230.669 mph
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 United Rentals Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It’s been a tough day. I certainly hope overnight that we can find a couple of things, but it appears that we’re going to have to hang our hat on consistency to try and get our way into this thing. We are not going to get there by speed. So tomorrow and Sunday could be very interesting days for us.”
- FAST FACTS: Will be his 16th Indy 500. His best qualifying position in the Indy 500 is fourth in 2009 with Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing and best finish is third with Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing in 2011 and RLL in 2020. Detailed Indy 500 information available upon request… 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 15th in series standings with 86 points.
JACK HARVEY, No. 30 PeopleReady Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I think the No. 30 PeopleReady car has some speed to find overnight and I’m not exactly sure what happened at the end there. We’ve just got to get with Honda and everyone at HPD about what happened and how we can try and fix it for tomorrow. It’s a privilege to do this in the first place. No matter what’s going on I’m grateful to be one of the drivers trying to get into the race. Hopefully, tomorrow is better than today.”
- FAST FACTS: The race will mark the seventh time for Harvey to compete in the Indy 500. His best start in the Indy 500 is 20th, two times (2020-2021) and best finish is ninth (2020). His highest overall 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 is ranked 21st with 53 points.
KATHERINE LEGGE, No. 44 Hendrickson Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Today was difficult. It’s always cool when you get to Fast Friday and you get to turn up the power but you don’t know what you’re going to get and all of the idiosyncrasies in the car come to life. So, we were working through a program with the other three cars and we were one step forward and two steps back in trying to make progress in the general direction. I think in that last run we did make progress. I don’t know how much of it was track conditions and because it was cooler. The engineers will go back and look at things and analyze. Hopefully we will come back tomorrow and put it in the show.”
- FAST FACTS: Will attempt to qualify for her third Indy 500 after having competed here in the race in 2012 and 2013, where she finished 22nd and 26th, respectively. Legge drove an Indy car for the first time since 2013 at a test at Texas Motor Speedway on April 3 and has spent a lot of time at the team’s shop preparing for the event.
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD, No. 45 Hy-Vee Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Fast Friday is done. I’m definitely more pleased with Fast Friday this year than we were as a team last year so in that regard it’s a positive. You can argue it’s a negative that we’re all close, especially in the position we’re in, but I think all cars are similar. We’re lacking some pace which will be interesting for tomorrow. Its not the best position to be in but its good we got a low draw for a qualifying attempt with seventh.”
- FAST FACTS: This will be Lundgaard’s second Indy 500. He started 31st and finished 18th last year while becoming the first Dane driver in the race… His highest series start is POLE in the previous race here and his highest finish is second in Race 2 at the IMS road course in 2022… He is ranked in 9th place in the point standings with 111.
NEXT UP: Qualifying for the 107th Running of the Indy 500 will begin tomorrow. The top 30 will be locked in Saturday with 1-12 vying for final positions in another attempt on Sunday. The final row will also be locked in on Sunday. Get a behind-the-scenes look at preparations for the 106th Indianapolis 500 via the Digital Ally Garage Camera on www.rahal.com.