Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix – Thermal, California
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
PRACTICE NOTES/QUOTES – Friday, March 21, 2025
FOSTER, RAHAL, AND DEFRANCESCO OPTOMISTIC ABOUT THE HANDLING OF THEIR RACE CARS AFTER PRACTICE 1 FOR THE THERMAL CLUB INDYCAR GRAND PRIX
1) Alex Palou 1:40.5486 / 109.810 mph
8) Louis Foster 1:41.1388 / 109.169 mph
22) Graham Rahal 1:41.8982 / 108.355 mph
23) Devlin DeFrancesco 1:41.9859 / 108.262 mph
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Mobil 1 Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “On the primary Firestone tire, the lap time came pretty quick. It wasn’t super-fast at the time, but I was surprised at what the time was, because we were in traffic. But then, when I went back to it, I think there was a bit of degradation, and it was going to be hard to get a better lap time on them. And it was the same with the alternates; I locked the left front on the good lap, and that was that. We did our best lap on Lap 5 of the tire, and at that point the tires are gone but there are some positives to take from the session. We have to stop the fronts (tires) from locking and see if we can ride the curbs better. Overall, we have something to work with and we’re going to continue to work at it and get the Mobil 1 Honda in a good position.”
- FAST FACTS: This will mark Rahal’s second event at The Thermal Club. Last year, he qualified third for his Heat Race (2) and finished there to earn a fifth place start in the All-Star race. Early on in the 12-car race. he began to struggle with a stuck throttle and dropped to seventh. From there, he dropped to 12th place and had to return to the pits with two laps to go for safety reasons… 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 FIVE poles (2009 – St. Pete street course, Kansas oval; 2017 – Detroit Race 1 street; 2024 IMS road course 2, Portland and his highest series season-ending standing is fourth place in 2015.
DEVLIN DEFRANCESCO, No. 30 Mi-Jack Dallara/Honda/Firestone:“It’s a fun track. The high-speed stuff at the back is quite fun. Our car is really, really solid through all the high speed stuff, but it’s been tricky in the low-speed parts. We’ve got to get some push out of the car because its understeer-y so we’ll throw some things at it and be better tomorrow. But then I had an all-red hybrid alarm on my dash go off that said ‘hybrid MGU failure’ and to stop on track so we ended the session early.”
- FAST FACTS: DeFrancesco participated in the February 2023 pre-season open test at The Thermal Club but did not race in the series event in 2024 although he was watching from afar. He qualified 14th in the St. Pete season opener and was on target for a top 10 finish there until a punctured tire forced him to pit and lose valuable positions. He ultimately finished 22nd in the race… His best career start to date is fifth at the IMS road course (August 2023) and his best career finish is 12th at WWTR (2022) and Detroit (2023).
LOUIS FOSTER, No. 45 Mi-Jack Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It’s good to be back at Thermal. I think we rolled off the truck pretty well; I’m pretty happy with the car. I made some mistakes on my lap in that (last) session, but I think overall in lap time we are P8 on the combined sheet so I’m happy with that. The track is very dusty, which is going to play a big factor into this weekend I think but we’ll see how it goes. Overall, so far, I’m pretty happy. We’ve just got to make some improvements overnight and try and retain where we are, if not get better.”
- FAST FACTS: The 2024 INDY NXT champion has made one INDYCAR SERIES with his debut at St. Pete although he was collected in an opening lap incident after qualifying 16th. It is his first event at The Thermal Club.
NEXT UP: Practice 2 will take place from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. ET tomorrow and qualifying will take place from 5:00 – 6:30 p.m. Both sessions will air live on FS1. The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix will be televised live on FOX beginning at 3:00 PM ET on Sunday, March 23.