Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
109th Running of the Indianapolis 500
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
OPENING DAY NOTES / QUOTES – May 13, 2025
WET CONDITIONS FORCED OPENING DAY FOR THE INDY 500 TO START LATE AND END EARLY
1) Will Power 227.026 mph 25th on the no tow chart
25) Devlin DeFrancesco 221.201 mph 22th on the no tow chart
26) Graham Rahal 221.142 mph 12th on the no tow chart
30) Louis Foster 220.063 mph 10th on the no tow chart
31) Takuma Sato 219.998 mph 11th on the no tow chart
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 United Rentals Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We had a good test here in April and got back on track here a little late today due to the weather and have a little bit of work to do for sure. The rear of the car doesn’t feel great. I think all of us are saying the same things so we need to go put our heads down and try to figure out how to find a little bit more consistency out of the rear of the car to be better on our own but also in traffic. I never really got much traffic running today – I wanted to but by the time we worked through our program, everybody took their break so it was kind of late before I even got five laps in traffic so, I’d like another shake at it but that will be tomorrow.”
- FAST FACTS: Will be his 18th Indy 500. His best qualifying position in the Indy 500 is fourth in 2009 with Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing and best finish is third with Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing in 2011 and RLL in 2020. Was bumped in qualifying for the 2023 Indy 500 by then-teammate Harvey but competed in the race as a replacement for the injured Stefan Wilson and finished 22nd after mechanical issues on the starting grid. Detailed Indy 500 information available upon request… 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; 2023 – IMS road, Portland) and his highest series season-ending standing is fourth place in 2015… He is 13th in INDYCAR SERIES point standings with 92.
DEVLIN DEFRANCESCO, No. 30 Dogecoin Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It was definitely more of a tricky day. I think we need to analyze all of the data overnight and work through what to attack tomorrow with. The good news is we left the open test very happy so, we know what feels good and what works, so I think we analyze tonight what wasn’t amazing today and we push on tomorrow.”
- FAST FACTS: This will be his third Indy 500. His best Indy 500 start is 24th in 2022 and his best finish is 13th in 2024. After one year away from the series, DeFrancesco matched his best INDYCAR start of fifth place in the 2025 Sonsio Grand Prix at the previous race – for his second fifth place start on the IMS road course after also starting fifth here in 2023. He is ranked 25th in the INDYCAR SERIES point standings with 44 points.
LOUIS FOSTER, No. 45 Desnuda Tequila Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It’s good to back at the Speedway; I love this place. It’s super cool to start my first month of May off officially. We had a challenging day and struggled with the balance this afternoon when we finally got running. We’re going to try to find out what’s different from the test and what we can improve on and just get a better read for it really. I’m obviously very much a novice at this so I’m led primarily by Graham and Takuma and Devlin so I’m trusting a lot in what they say and am trying to learn from them as best as possible. I think so far we understand the problem and we know how to work towards it. But we’ll see how we roll out tomorrow and try to get some good traffic running in and hopefully from there we can have a good foothold on the rest of the month.”
- FAST FACTS: Will be Foster’s first Indy 500. His best series start to date is third at the previous race – the Sonsio Grand Prix and his best finish is 11th – also at the Sonsio GP… He is ranked in 23rd place in the point standings with 49.
TAKUMA SATO, No. 75 AMADA Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “First of all, once again a big thank you to the team and the No. 75 AMADA crew. What usually takes two months, they compressed into two weeks which is very impressive. It’s a beautiful, brand new, shiny car. Today, we had a little technical issue at the very beginning which stopped us from doing the program we wanted. In the end, we ended up just shaking down the car but tomorrow should be a full test program and I’m looking forward to it. I’m really happy to come back to IMS. I feel good.”
- FAST FACTS: The two-time Indy 500 champion started 10th for his 15th Indy 500 in 2024 and sixth with the team and finished 14th. He competed for RLL fulltime in 2012 and from 2018-2021 and won the Indy 500 with RLL in 2020. He has earned six NTT INDYCAR SERIES wins, four of which have come with RLL, including the team’s second Indy 500 win in 2020. Most recently, Sato competed in oval races with Chip Ganassi Racing in 2023. Other Indy 500 highlights with RLL include the 2012 where he was alongside eventual winner Franchitti in Turn 1 on the final lap but his race ended due to contact after he was squeezed down on the apron and lost control of his race car. He also finished third for RLL in 2019 and was a contender in the final laps… Has SIX INDYCAR SERIES wins (2013 – Long Beach street course, 2017 – Indy 500 oval, 2018 – Portland road, 2019 – Barber road, Gateway oval; 2020 Indy 500 ) and 10 poles (2011 Iowa oval, Edmonton street; 2013 Houston Race 1 street; 2014 St. Pete street, Detroit Race 2 street; 2017 Detroit Race 2, Pocono oval; 2019 Barber road, Texas oval; 2020 St. Louis – Race 2).
NEXT UP: Practice will resume tomorrow from 12-6 p.m. ET.