Rahal Letterman Lanigan RacingChevrolet Detroit Grand Prix – Streets of Downtown Detroit
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
RACE NOTES/QUOTES – June 4, 2023

LUNDGAARD, HARVEY AND RAHAL FINISHED 16TH, 17TH AND 25TH IN THE DETROIT GRAND PRIX’S RETURN TO DOWNTOWN

GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 United Rentals Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I got a lot of understeer, but it’s on me. I need to see the tape obviously, and understand what happened. I’m just so disappointed in myself with the errors this weekend. It’s hard when you’re in a position like this to escape to figure out why. But it ultimately is on me. I’ve got to perform a heck of a lot better than that. Particularly on a day like this. It’s not typical of me. I know you’ve got to stay on the dance floor and I don’t know what to say. We weren’t good obviously in the race. It’s disappointing and I’m sorry to United Rentals, to Fifth Third Bank, Fleet Cost and Care, and all of our partners that have committed so much to this program. We need to reset. I need to reset, and I need to come back much, much stronger in Road America.”

• FAST FACTS: He started 27th and retired in 25th place after making contact with the wall on Lap 50 of 100. In 2022 on Belle Isle, Graham’s race came to an early end after he bottomed out in Turn 2, lost traction and hit the wall on Lap 2 and retired from the race. In 2021, he finished fifth in both races here. In 2019, he earned two seventh place finishes. Rahal’s most successful race weekend came in Detroit in 2017 where he won Dual 1 from pole and won Dual 2 from a third place start. His other podiums in the race came in 2014 with second place in Dual 1 and third place in Dual 2 in 2015.  Overall, he has two wins, four podiums and one pole in 15 races here…  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 ranked 18th in series standings with 99 points.

JACK HARVEY, 30 Kustom Entertainment Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Starting where we did, without a super advantageous yellow, you’ve just to pick up the pieces when you can which I think we did today. I think right at that last stint, I don’t think we needed to try and do the undercut. I think we were struggling to get tire temp. The reason we tried the undercut was that was our get-home number so if it had gone yellow out there, we would have been looking really good in the end. The difference between finishing 15th and 17th is neither here nor there. All things considered, I think we had a pretty good race today on the No. 30 Kustom Entertainment car. We don’t come to have a good race and finish 17th, that was just a good recovery day. I want to see us consistently in the Top 10 so that’s what we are going to keep working for.”

• FAST FACTS: He started 25th and finished 17th in his fourth race in Detroit. In 2022, he finished 15th on Belle Isle with RLL. He competed in the 2021 INDYCAR doubleheader for Meyer Shank Racing where he started 19th, ran as high as ninth and finished 16th after five stops to the winner’s two due to a puncture and alternate strategy. He started 18th in Race 2 and finished 19th. Two races ago at IMS, he made his first Firestone Fast Six appearance with the team and qualified fourth, ran as high as third but had some issues in the race and finished 20th. His highest series finish is third place at the IMS road course in 2019. He is 23rd in series standings with 78 points.  

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD, No. 45 Hy-Vee Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We will spend the next week investigating and understanding why we weren’t as competitive as we wanted to be and get ready for Road America. I think Road America will be a track that will suit our car especially after the GMR Grand Prix. It’s a smooth, flowing track so we will need to extract as much as we can once we know we have a good package there. That’s our target for now. But the race here was just a bumpy run really, not being able to capitalize on other people’s mistakes and not able to get going on the restarts, which hurt our race today.” 

• FAST FACTS: He started 18th and finished 16th in his second race in Detroit… Last year, he had worked his way up to 9th place from a 19th place start but had to pit earlier than planned to clear debris that was blocking airflow from his overheating car. The team had hoped to stay on the more durable primary tires longer in order to gain more positions but he had to compete his mandatory stint on the alternate tires on the next one before returning to the preferred primary tires for the final one and finished 14th. After starting from pole at the previous road course race at Indianapolis and finishing fourth, he is looking forward to returning to a street course to continue the trajectory that saw him finish sixth on the road course in Barber and fourth at the GMR Grand Prix…. He dropped from an 11th place rank to 13th in the series point standings with 136.

NEXT UP:  The series will take next weekend off and return to action June 16-18 for the Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America.