Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Big Machine Music City Grand Prix
NTT INDYCAR SERIES – Round 13 of 17
QUALIFYING NOTES/QUOTES – August 5, 2023

LUNDGAARD, RAHAL AND HARVEY TO START THE BIG MACHINE MUSIC CITY GRAND PRIX OF NASHVILLE FROM 13TH, 15TH AND 22ND PLACE AFTER RAIN DELAYED INDYCAR SESSIONS

1)           Scott McLaughlin          1:14.6099 / 101.327 mph              (Group 1, Round 3)
13)        Christian Lundgaard    1:16.0985 / 99.345 mph               (Group 1, Round 1)
15)        Graham Rahal                1:16.1825 / 99.235 mph               (Group 1, Round 1)      
22)        Jack Harvey                    1:16.1193 / 99.318 mph               (Group 2, Round 1)

GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “My balance was just really, really far off there. I had no rotation, the car had a massive amount of under steer. I don’t know what Christian said but our cars aren’t too dissimilar so I bet it’s a similar message. Yeah, it just wasn’t there. Even on the blacks, it just didn’t want to turn. On the primary tires, you could see we had a lot of issues with the front tires locking so I just didn’t get two good laps and just didn’t get a good run at all but then you go to the alternate tires. In Turn 4, I about drove straight into the fence (wall) just with understeer, no lockups no nothing. It just didn’t turn so tomorrow will be a new day for the Fifth Third Bank car. It’s a bummer to have that but it’s going to be close. It’s going to be a dog fight so we will see what happens.”

• FAST FACTS: In the inaugural race in 2021, Rahal finished fifth after starting 13th. Last year, he started 9th and ran 10th until the pit cycle started. After his first stop on Lap 23/80 during a FCC for Castroneves, who spun, he was running 10th when the field checked up ahead of him and O’Ward ran into Power and Rahal ran into O’Ward. He damaged his front wing and was dragging it under the front of this car until he made it back to the pits. The team replaced the wing and he returned to the track but hit the wall at the end of pit out. The crew took the car behind the pits to repair the front and rear suspension on the right side due to the high number of incidents and potential to gain valuable points if able to continue. Once he was back on track, the car was bottoming and he hit the wall on the bridge and ultimately retired from the race in 23rd… 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 in 16th place in series point standings with a total of 182.

JACK HARVEY, 45 Kustom Entertainment Dallara/Honda/Firestone: (on causing a caution in one turn:) “I was just pushing it and locked up in Turn 8 which is really random actually because I haven’t had an issue there all weekend. Ultimately it only cost me one position (after a penalty that omitted his fastest lap). It’s qualifying at the end of the day; I was just going for it and then I think on reds at the end, I think my best rolling lap would’ve been two or 3/10ths quicker than what we did. But we started out well, started to run out of grip and you know just kind of only slightly improved. I think me, Graham, and Chrisitan had about the same lap times and I think our group (Group 2) looked pretty stacked compared to Group 1 but it’s how it goes. Some weekends that’s in your favor and some it’s not. This place can be a bit of a crash fest so we need to make sure we have a smart and sensible race tomorrow and I think we should be able to get a good result even if we don’t have a raw speed maybe we can still get our car a good result.” 

• FAST FACTS: It will be Harvey’s third race here. Last year, he started 11th and took the checkered flag in ninth place but was given a post-race penalty for avoidable contact with Pagenaud and dropped one position. In the inaugural race in 2021, Harvey qualified sixth and finished 15th in an eventful race that saw an eight-car pileup and was later red-flagged and ultimately won by Ericsson, who brought out an early-race caution and had to go to the back of the field. In 2021, he qualified sixth and finished 15th… He is ranked 23rd with 124 points.  

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD, No. 45 Hy-Vee Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Obviously being out in Q1 was not really what we wanted to happen. I think our Hy-Vee car was stronger. We made some changes overnight which we didn’t get to verify in Practice 2, obviously, because of the rain which certainly wasn’t the move so here we are.  It’s frustrating because I feel that not being able to verify the changes is the reason we’re not through (Round 1). Quite honestly it sucks because we had a car that was fast enough to be in the Top 3 but those changes made it real tough today.” 

• FAST FACTS: Arrived to Nashville for his second race here as the winner of the previous street race in Toronto on July 16. Last year, he earned his top starting position to date with third place and was passed by Palou on the start to run fourth. He made his first stop from second place on Lap 23 under caution and ran in the top-10 for the next stint as there were some drivers on a different pit stop strategy. When Rahal and Veekay brought out the caution from Laps 52-55, many jumped in the pits and Lundgaard cycled into third place. He ran his best lap of the race on Lap 60 of 80 from third place and took over second when Newgarden had to pit for fuel on Lap 66. He held second through one restart but dropped to third place on Lap 76/80 when McLaughlin passed him. A red flag came out for nearly 12 minutes when Grosjean crashed and on the restart on Lap 78/80, Lundgaard dropped from third to eighth place.  … He is 9th place in the point standings with 275.

RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING IN NASHVILLE… The Music City Grand Prix will mark the third event for the team here. The team’s highest finish here is fifth place by Rahal and highest start is third by Lundgaard last year.

NEXT UP:  The 80-lap Big Machine Music City Grand Prix will take the green flag on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage will begin at 12 ET on NBC. Timing and Scoring information is available for all sessions from www.indycar.com and includes commentary by the INDYCAR Radio Network.