Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Honda Indy Toronto – Streets around Exhibition Place
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
QUAIFYING NOTES/QUOTES – Saturday, July 15, 2023
 
LUNDGAARD EARNED HIS SECOND POLE OF THE YEAR, FIRST ON A STREET COURSE AND SECOND FOR THE TEAM AT THE HONDA INDY TORONTO; HARVEY QUALIFIED 19TH AND RAHAL 27TH AFTER WET CONDITIONS LED TO CONTACT FOR THE LATTER
 
1)           Christian Lundgaard       1:04.1567 / 100.217 mph              (Group 1, Round 3)
19)        Jack Harvey                     1:02.2035 / 103.364 mph              (Group 1, Round 1)
27)        Graham Rahal                 1:29.3774 / 71.938 mph               (Group 2, Round 1)
 
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 United Rentals Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I just made two mistakes in Turn 7 on power down. The second time, I short-shifted up and she felt hooked up and just gave up. Ultimately, I don’t know if we could have made it when we went back out after the first spin. It depends on how much quicker the track was getting. I’m not sure we had a .74 in it but it’s slippery out there. Visibility was actually pretty good. I thought everything with the aero screen was much improved. But I’m certainly disappointed in the end result. It should’ve been a better result than that.
              “Well, it’s (wet conditions) a major challenge for everybody ultimately. Starting at the front of the pit lane, I thought it was going to be a good advantage and it was. It was obviously up until the time of our first half spin, we were P2. But obviously, it derailed the whole session. I’m disappointed for United Rentals and will try to get some feedback to Christian and see what he can come up with and see if he can improve. It’s obviously done raining now so it should dry up and get pretty interesting here at the end.”

• 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: “We were just a little unfortunate with the rain honestly. The tire strategy we had tried to execute I think was going to work out very well and then we probably just missed the rain by about half a lap. So, it is just kind of unfortunate really. I think we definitely need to work on activating the tire sooner because we definitely struggle in the first three laps. With a session like that, those laps are really important. Wish we didn’t have a bump. I think the pace has been alright this weekend as a whole so I certainly expect us to move forward in the race.
              “It seemed like that was the last part of the track that was drying. Even in the end in qualifying, Turn 8 looked pretty wet still and then we were obviously seeing plenty of people spinning out there. I don’t know about Turn 9 though. I didn’t really get to drive in the rain because as soon as it rained, we pit because we weren’t going to improve. I think street circuits are always tricky. Especially in Toronto when there’s like four different types of pavement across the track it’s pretty difficult to judge. We will see what tomorrow brings.”  

• 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: “Today was a good day for the VIVID Clear RX / Hy-Vee team! It was definitely tricky (track going from dry to wet, and back). I aborted my first run in Q1 because I did feel the rain would prevent anyone from improving (on lap times set in dry conditions). It was the right choice to take then. And then Q2 was wet and we made it through. We took the position to go on another set of tires there as well.  We’ve been competitive and we’re moving forward. We’ve had two good races the last two races as well. The crew has been nailing it, I have been nailing it as well so we’re looking good for tomorrow.
              “I think when I woke up this morning, I was just hoping we were going to make improvements from yesterday, from 17th yesterday. To end the day like this I didn’t quite expect, but RLL has just been smashing it, quite honestly. I know the past few race weekends we’ve been moving forward, and we’ve been making progress on the side as well from my test at Iowa. Let’s just see what the rest of the season brings. It starts well now, so we’ll keep moving. The Hy-Vee Vivid Car team made it happen today. I don’t think I did. I think they did.”

• FAST FACTS: Will be his second race here and second INDYCAR SERIES pole after starting from pole in the GMR Grand Prix at IMS in May. 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 and TODAY by Lundgaard. In total, the team has earned FIVE podiums (3rd – Rahal 1996), 10 top-five’s and 21 top-10 finishes at the track. 
 
NEXT UP: Race day warmup will take place tomorrow from 10:15 – 10:45 a.m. The 85-lap Honda Indy Toronto will be streamed live on Peacock beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET Sunday, July 16.