The latest Indianapolis road course pole-winner Graham Rahal says that he finds it reassuring to have beaten everyone to the top spot, not just for the sake of his team but in bolstering his own confidence.
Rahal failed to qualify his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda for the Indianapolis 500, but earned a reprieve when he subbed for the injured Stefan Wilson at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.
Since a miserable showing for the RLL team overall in the 500, however, several personnel changes have been made and the team has been on a hot streak, particularly with Christian Lundgaard, who took pole and victory in Toronto and will join Rahal on the front row at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course tomorrow.
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However, Rahal is still seeking his first top-five of the season, despite qualifying on the front row at Mid-Ohio, and there had been speculation as to whether his personal efforts to help team owners Bobby Rahal, David Letterman and Mike Lanigan had distracted him from his driving duties. There has even been some muttering – stoked by asides from Graham himself – as to whether retirement was imminent. Today’s performance has muted many of those critics, he hopes.
“Clearly this weekend is very different than the 500, but it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t carry a lot of significance and importance to our team and to me personally,” he said afterward. “I’ve seen plenty of the hate, plenty of the ‘can’t do it, can’t compete with the kids,’ can’t whatever.
“To be able to silence some of that – and I thought we did a bit at Mid-Ohio – but it’s nice to see a good step forward finally in the car the way I want it to drive. It’s starting to come together.”
Asked if he and the team were still evaluating each other, he responded: “It’s still a work in progress. Nothing’s signed, nothing’s changed. My intentions are to stay. We’ve got an extremely, extremely good core group of sponsors, I think better than anybody else in the series. That’s growing for next year. There’s no intentions to swap. I have talked to others, but that doesn’t mean that I’m one foot out the door.
“Everybody knows this: I wanted to not only evaluate where the team stands, but myself. I think it’s important to take a step back, look in the mirror, figure out where do I want to go, what do I want to do? Qualifying on pole helps those decisions, for sure, knowing that you can still do it, knowing you can be up front. A win tomorrow would make it even sweeter.
“At the end of the day I think a lot of people just assume I’m going to retire at some stage soon. I mean, I’m only 34. I know I’ve been here for a 100 years, but I still feel like I’ve got a little while left. Also the reality is that these young guys are really, really good now. You’ve seen it in Cup, too, right? These kids that are coming in are ultra-prepared, way more prepared than I was the first time I drove an IndyCar, anything like that. So the competitive nature continues to rise.
“It’s nice to have a reminder that you belong, for sure.”
Quizzed on where he might go if he decides to split from RLL, Rahal stated: “I don’t just say this because my dad is part of this, the biggest blessing we have as an organization is owners that are 100 percent committed to win, put it on the line, day in and day out, to make that happen.
“Not only that, we have sponsors that are committed to it. Relationships like I have with everybody on this suit, literally, we spend a lot of time cultivating that, trying to make those relationships stronger and stronger. Those are things that I value more than anything else.
“When racing is all over, relationships are what is going to carry you through the rest of your life. Not race wins, pole positions, nothing else. Those relationships are critical to me. I want to make sure we continue to deliver for them. I think that’s ultimately most important.”
Rahal sounded confident, too, that the RLL cars that he, Lundgaard and Jack Harvey (qualified eighth) have for Saturday’s race will be strong over the course of a stint.
“Hopefully Christian and I can get off clean, not be under too much pressure behind,” he said. “We will be because of the characteristic of the track. Hopefully nothing happens and we can get through [Turns] 1, 2, just frankly go. I think both of us have really, really good cars. I think both of us have cars that are going to be consistent. Firestone brought a good alternate tire back — the 2021 tire is back. I think that’s going to be the preferred. See what plays out.”