Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing PR

Rahal, Lundgaard and Harvey 16th, 17th and 21st in Practice 1 for the Honda Indy Toronto

Posted on by Patrick Stephan

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Honda Indy Toronto – Streets around Exhibition Place
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
PRACTICE NOTES/QUOTES – Friday, July 14, 2023
 
RAHAL, LUNDGAARD AND HARVEY 16TH, 17TH AND 21ST IN PRACTICE 1 FOR THE HONDA INDY TORONTO
 
1st:        Kyle Kirkwood                 1:00.8075 / 105.737 mph                           
16th:      Graham Rahal                1:01.6983 / 104.210 mph             
17th:      Christian Lundgaard       1:01.6996 / 104.208 mph
21st:      Jack Harvey                    1:02.4657 / 102.930 mph             
 
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 United Rentals Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “The rear of my car was a real challenge for me today. It’s just super bumpy. We’ve got a little work to do but I think we’ll be okay. On the tire run — the new red (alternate tire) run, I got stuck behind Santino. It was no fault of his, just traffic around a tight track, so I didn’t really get my lap in there. I went quicker on my next run, which I was surprised about because I didn’t think on the rerun it would be as good but we’ve got work to do. There’s no doubt about that. So we’ll see how tomorrow goes.”

  • FAST FACTS: The 2023 Honda Indy Toronto will be Graham Rahal’s 16th Indy car race here and 17th overall (Atlantic 2006). In 15 Indy car races, his best start of second came in 2017 with RLL and best finish of fourth came last year. He has three, top-five starts and six, top-10 finishes… 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 14th in series point standings with a total of 145.

JACK HARVEY, 30 HUB International Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Speed-wise, I think we would’ve been exactly where Graham and Christian were without some traffic and it happened right at the end of the lap so it just kind of ruined a little bit of what we had accomplished, lap-time wise. But, for the (lap) time that we’re looking to find, it feels like we need a bit of a philosophy rethink for tomorrow because it’s not just a little bit of balance (missing). You know a little bit of balance here or there would be nice but it wouldn’t improve us a lot. So we just need to look into that and go from there.” 

  • FAST FACTS: Is making his second Indy car start here. Last year, he started 13th but had problems on both of his pit stops and finished 19th. He competed here in 2014 in Indy Lights where he started fourth and finished third. And also competed in the doubleheader here in 2015 where he started fourth in Race 1 and fifth in Race 2 and finished second in both. Last year, he had a car that he felt was capable of a top-10 finish last year so he is hoping to improve upon that this year and bring home a strong result. He is 23rd in series standings with 95 points.  

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD, No. 45 VIVID Clear RX Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I think we were a little more competitive than what we ended up showing. We were on the reds — or the greens (alternate tires), I should say — quite early in the session to make sure that we got through it and at the same time that was our run plan. It’s a little disappointing to be where we are. I think there is more pace in the car but that is something that we will figure out for Practice 2. I don’t think we have another 8/10ths of a second to the other guys so we have some work to do to get the VIVID Clear RX car to the top of the timesheets.”

  • FAST FACTS: Will be his second race here. Last year, he started 10th and climbed as high as fifth before his first of two stops on Lap 17. He made his second stop with the majority of the field during the second of four caution periods on Lap 47 and returned to the track 12th. He gained more positions when a few drivers made their final stop and others made contact. He took the checkered flag in eighth place for his highest career INDYCAR finish to date at that point…. He is in 10th place in series standings with 194.

RLL AT TORONTO: The 2023 Honda Indy Toronto will mark the 22nd year of Indy car racing for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) here and second since 2019 due to the pandemic. The team also competed in the Atlantic Series races here in 2003 and 2004.  The team earned a total of four second place finishes (Rahal 1992, 1994, 1995; Michel Jourdain Jr. 2003) and best start was pole in 1992 by Bobby Rahal. In total, the team has earned FIVE podiums (3rd – Rahal 1996), 10 top-five’s and 21 top-10 finishes at the track.  The No. 15 United Rentals entry for Graham Rahal, the No. 30 HUB International entry for Jack Harvey and No. 45 VIVID Clear RX entry for Christian Lundgaard will bring the Indy car total to 41 in 2023.
 
NEXT UP: Practice 2 will take place tomorrow from 10:35 – 11:35 a.m. ET and qualifying will be 2:50 – 4:20 p.m. ET. Timing and Scoring information is available for all sessions from www.indycar.com and includes commentary by the INDYCAR Radio Network. The 85-lap Honda Indy Toronto will be streamed live on Peacock beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET Sunday, July 16.