After the great showing in qualifying shown by the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team at Mid-Ohio, in which Graham Rahal earned a second-place starting position while teammates Christian Lundgaard and Jack Harvey were fifth and 11th, that strong form continued into the Honda Indy 200…although pit-lane setbacks made the results less than they might have been. Rahal saw his opportunity for a podium finish dented on his first pit stop and dashed on the final one due to delays in connecting the refueling hose. He persevered to finish seventh, while Lundgaard ran strongly throughout to end up one place higher than he qualified — matching his season best in fourth — and Harvey ran in the top 10 much of the way although he faded to 18th at the finish.
“I would say so, just considering who we are around on track and we were definitely moving forward in the race,” said Lundgaard, when asked by NBC Sports if he felt the team was riding an upswing of momentum, “Considering where we were last year here, none of our cars transferred into Q2, so the RLL team is making progress,” the Dane is hopeful of demonstrating even more of it next time out: “Last year we made progress at Toronto, I think that’s where we started moving forward as a team,” Lundgaard said, “so I’m pretty confident this year we’ll be faster.”
Disappointing moment for @GrahamRahal.
After starting P2, the No. 15 has issues in the pit.#INDYCAR // #Honda200 pic.twitter.com/RKU1VWoM9g
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) July 2, 2023
For Rahal, the problems started at the first pit stop where a momentary delay in detaching the fuel hose saw him slip from second and challenging then-race leader Colton Herta to seventh, while the second consigned him to finish in that spot. While understandably disconsolate, Rahal tried to stay positive about the day.
“We win as a team, we lose as a team — obviously I thought the Fifth Third Bank car should have been further forward today, but it’s a quick reminder we need to be better in every phase of the program,” he said.
“Look, I’m disappointed, that’s a fact — it’s going to sting to think about it over the next couple of weeks but we just need to continue to improve in every aspect of the game. We’ll put our our heads down, enjoy the 4th and come back at Toronto.
“This is definitely a solid response for us as a team, but today’s just a quick reminder that not only to do we need to be better with performance in qualifying and everything else but in every phase — and that includes myself too. When you want to compete with [Alex] Palou and guys like that that are clicking in every aspect of the game, it takes a lot and we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
