Tag: Graham Rahal

Rahal to replace Wilson at DRR for Indianapolis 500

Graham Rahal cherishes the year he spent as teammate to the late Justin Wilson in 2008, when the teenager learned important things about life and racing from the gentle Briton. Fifteen years later, he’s getting another opportunity to partner with …

Graham Rahal cherishes the year he spent as teammate to the late Justin Wilson in 2008, when the teenager learned important things about life and racing from the gentle Briton. Fifteen years later, he’s getting another opportunity to partner with the Wilson family, this time with Justin’s younger brother Stefan, who is sidelined from competing in Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 due to injury.

In one of the most remarkable stories imaginable at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Stefan Wilson, his sponsor and team owner Don Cusick, and the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing team that fields Wilson’s No. 24 Chevy have asked Rahal to be their driver in the 107th Indy 500.

“We are very sad that Stefan was injured Monday and now is unable to compete this Sunday in the No. 24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports/CareKeepers Chevrolet,” said Dennis Reinbold, DRR team owner.

“Stefan put so much effort into this race that it is just heartbreaking for this to have happened. However, we are announcing that Graham Rahal will now drive the No. 24 car this Sunday. We have known Graham for over a decade as he drove our car in 2010 at Iowa Speedway. He suffered through a tough weekend here, but we believe Graham can perform very well this Sunday.”

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The call was made on Monday, the day after Rahal was bumped from the field in his own No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda, and Rahal accepted, completing an emotion-filled journey of his own. The opportunity comes after Wilson received the news that he’d fractured his back and would be unable to race after being hit from behind and launched into the Turn 1 wall at over 200mph during practice.

“First and foremost, the only thing that matters is that Stefan is doing well considering the circumstances,” said Cusick. “We are completely gutted for Stefan and now will miss his favorite racing event, the legendary Indy 500. We wouldn’t be here without him and we are committed to supporting him every step on the way to recovery and beyond.

“Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and our partners have been nothing but supportive and I couldn’t be more thankful. I am happy that we could fill the seat of the No. 24 DRR/Cusick Motorsports/CareKeepers Chevy with a quality replacement in Graham Rahal. Graham knows the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval very well and we wish him the best this Sunday in the ‘Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”

Wilson’s brother Justin (right) served as a mentor to Rahal early in his career. Motorsport Images

Wilson qualified 25th on Sunday, and with the Cusick/DRR team preparing a new No. 24 entry for Rahal after the primary chassis was destroyed, he’ll get his first chance to drive it during Friday’s two-hour final practice from 11am-1pm. Due to the change of driver, it’s unclear whether IndyCar will move the No. 24 car to the back of the 33-car field to start the race or allow Rahal to take Wilson’s original qualifying position.

“I’ll admit it was a very tough weekend for me and the United Rentals/Fifth Third Bank/RLL team,” said Rahal. “We tried everything, and we just didn’t have the speed. I’m very sad that Stefan was injured in practice on Monday. I wish him a quick recovery.

“I want to thank Dennis and Don for giving me this opportunity in the No. 24 car. I’m anxious to work with the team and prepare for the greatest race in the world, the Indianapolis 500.”

Fifth Third Bank and United Rentals, which had partnered with Rahal on the No.15 entry, will move across to the No.24.

Fostered by the gratitude for all that Justin Wilson gave while mentoring the 19-year-old IndyCar sophomore, the enduring bond between Rahal and the Wilsons runs deep. With Wilson’s loss at the Pocono IndyCar race in 2015, Rahal swept into action to care for Wilson’s wife Julia and young daughters Jane and Jess by rallying the IndyCar paddock and some of the sport’s biggest names spanning NASCAR and Formula 1 to donate helmets and other memorabilia for a charity auction.

Driven by Rahal’s tireless efforts, which also included help from Stefan Wilson, $637,067.94 was raised for Justin Wilson’s wife and daughters. In their proverbial hour of need, Rahal was there, and with an opportunity to return the kindness, Rahal was chosen over a number of drivers to ensure he didn’t miss out on competing in the race that means the most to every IndyCar driver.

Rahal takes the high road after Indy qualifying heartbreak

Graham Rahal undid his safety belts, disconnected the various tubes and cables attached to his racing suit and helmet, and stepped from his car into a new and unwelcome reality. For the second time in his family’s history, Rahal’s participation in …

Graham Rahal undid his safety belts, disconnected the various tubes and cables attached to his racing suit and helmet, and stepped from his car into a new and unwelcome reality.

For the second time in his family’s history, Rahal’s participation in the Indianapolis 500 came to an end before Carb Day, before “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” and before he was ready to accept membership to a club he never wanted to join.

Heartbroken, he took time to thank his entire team because that’s what leaders do. And then it was time to deal with the upswell of emotions.

Walking around to the right side of his No. 15 Honda, his tousled hair slightly astray, Rahal put his head in his hands and cried, releasing weeks of worry and disappointment in a few private moments before cameras descended upon him. Rahal’s wife Courtney arrived and brought love and consolation to her husband. With his daughter in sight, he lifted her to his chest and held her tight as more tears flowed.

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The prodigal son, an IndyCar race winner in his teens, met the same fate as his father at the 1993 Indy 500. Bumped by teammate Jack Harvey, who he recruited to join Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Rahal walked over and embraced his friend and was consoled by Harvey, who dealt with conflicting feelings of guilt and joy.

The Speedway, in all of its cruel and giving and torturous ways, left a permanent mark on both men this Sunday.

“As I said to these guys, you’ve just got to be positive,” Rahal said. “And everybody puts a lot into this; we just came up short. This place, it doesn’t come easy. It doesn’t just happen. And we weren’t good enough. You know, we were the slowest of our cars, just on pure pace, all week. It’s unfortunate that happens, but, you know, you’ve got to be positive. You’ve got to be humble and gracious in victory and defeat.”

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Rahal misses Indy 500 after being bumped by teammate Harvey

Graham Rahal will not start the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500 after being knocked out at the last minute by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda teammate Jack Harvey (pictured above). Grand Prix of Indianapolis pole-winner Christian Lundgaard hit …

Graham Rahal will not start the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500 after being knocked out at the last minute by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda teammate Jack Harvey (pictured above).

Grand Prix of Indianapolis pole-winner Christian Lundgaard hit the track first in the one-hour session and opened his first attempt with a 230.325mph and dropped to 229.776mph on his second, 229.371mph on his third and finished off with a 229.129mph. This average of 229.649mph was slower than expected, for he had been the fastest of the four Last Chance Qualifier contenders in morning practice. The car looked secure – possibly too secure – perhaps carrying too much downforce in response to the 124 degree track temperature.

Sting Ray Robb of Dale Coyne Racing with RWR was next up, and the first and second laps from the 21-year-old rookie from Idaho were slower than Lundgaard’s equivalents. His third lap virtually matched his second, but his fourth was slower and he fell behind Lundgaard despite just 1mph dropoff from lap one to lap four.

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Harvey looked doomed from the word go, with 229.034mph on the first tour of the legendary 2.5-mile course, dropping him into the 228mphs for the next two laps, and a 227.914mph on his final lap dropping him to 228.477mph – over 1mph behind Robb.

Teammate Graham Rahal had a weight jacker issue, so his average 229.159mph was nothing to shout about, but it was over 0.68mph clear of Harvey. Falling short of Robb’s speed, however, left RLL in an invidious position. If Harvey was to improve significantly, he would bump out Rahal. And making a second attempt meant the driver relinquished his first time, so no one was going to blink unless Harvey, the man with nothing to lose, went out.

Harvey made a 170mph run on old tires to drive air through the engine, to remove the power-sapping heat-soak that all IndyCars suffer while sitting on pitlane. Then he made his second qualifying attempt with 10 minutes to go, leaving enough time for Rahal to respond should he need to.

Harvey’s opening lap of 229.393mph, a second lap of 228.968mph and a third of 228.941mph meant he was down to 34th again, even before he closed out with a 228.416mph. But he pitted again, grabbed some fuel and hit the track once more, and with the clock running out as he warmed up, Rahal wouldn’t have any more time left.

The 30-year-old from Bassingham, Lincolnshire, UK delivered two laps of 229.435mph and 229.082mph, which didn’t look good, but then his third lap was 229.176mph and a 228.971mph was his closer. It was enough to beat Rahal out of the 107th Indy 500 by just 0.07mph.

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Harvey riding an early Long Beach GP confidence wave with RLL

There was little to show for Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s trip to Texas Motor Speedway a couple of weeks ago, but Long Beach could be a happier hunting ground after a solid opening to the weekend from the team’s three cars. Christian Lundgaard and Jack …

There was little to show for Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s trip to Texas Motor Speedway a couple of weeks ago, but Long Beach could be a happier hunting ground after a solid opening to the weekend from the team’s three cars.

Christian Lundgaard and Jack Harvey finished Friday practice session 10th- and 12-fastest respectively, while Graham Rahal spent most of the afternoon inside the top 10 before dropping back to 16th on his second set of tires.

“I kind of felt coming into the weekend that our street circuit car was showing potential at St. Pete, so I was pretty optimistic, honestly, about what we can achieve this weekend,” Harvey told RACER.

“Compared to other weekends, we’ve unloaded with that speed and it’s just come a little easier than it has at some other races. Straight away, I looked down and thought, ‘Oh, that’s not a bad lap,’ and I think there’s still quite a bit more to come.

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“On the No. 30 car we’re just chasing a little bit of rear stability, but I think the track will rubber in and perhaps give us that. So tonight we’ll sit down and figure out how much or how little we want to do.”

Friday’s running was defined in part by much cooler conditions than the IndyCar field has dealt with at Long Beach over the last couple of years; the ambient temperatures in the 80s and 90s of the recent past making way for conditions in the low 60s. Saturday is forecast to be cooler still, and one of RLL’s priorities overnight will be ensuring its performance won’t be adversely affected.

“One thing we need to do tomorrow is try to activate the tire a little sooner,” Harvey said. “That’s probably going to be our biggest focus overnight (because of the cooler temperatures). It’s something we’ve struggled with before; just trying to activate the tires quick enough. The Andretti cars are very good at that. It’s just something we have to try to figure out tonight – see if we can put the energy into the tires a bit sooner. But I think we’re in pretty good shape.”

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Restructured RLL off to a rocky IndyCar start after Texas

Big things were expected from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing to open 2023 after performing a sweeping reorganization of its technical department during the offseason, and after completing the first two races of the NTT IndyCar Series races of the …

Big things were expected from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing to open 2023 after performing a sweeping reorganization of its technical department during the offseason, and after completing the first two races of the NTT IndyCar Series races of the year, the Indiana-based team continues to search for the finest version of itself.

A hard crash for RLL sophomore Jack Harvey at St. Petersburg and overall lack of front-running speed presented a challenge in round one; Christian Lundgaard was the team’s best qualifier in 11th and improved to ninth, and Graham Rahal motored from 20th to sixth in the accident-filled event, but the team had its sights set on starting towards the front and finishing in the vicinity of the podium.

Texas Motor Speedway offered another chance for RLL to take a step forward, but like St. Petersburg, speed was elusive from the outset as all three drivers qualified between 24th and 28th. The 250-lap race was a punishing affair for the squad as the trio were lapped before the halfway point with Harvey leading the team home in 18th as Lundgaard followed home in 19th, three laps arrears. Making matters worse, Rahal was wrecked on lap 219, collateral damage in Devlin DeFrancesco’s crash that led his car to turn right into Rahal’s path entering Turn 3.

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Unhurt in the brief 200mph flight and subsequent crash, Rahal held no grudge with the Andretti Autosport driver, but did lament the unsatisfactory start — its second in consecutive seasons — after being checked and cleared by IndyCar’s medical team.

“You know our setup to start the race is so far out of the window, it’s just everything I can do to hang on as long as I did, but that put us a couple laps down,” Rahal said. “Really in this situation, (definitely did) nothing wrong. It’s just a racing deal. It’s unfortunate, but I’m in one piece. You know, I cheated Texas again.”

Thanks to Rahal’s big drive in St Petersburg, the Texas crash and 24th-place finish has only dropped him to 13th in the standings. Lundgaard’s run to 19th moved him down to 14th, and Harvey’s Round 1 crash — also not of his making — and crossing the line in 18th on Sunday has him holding 22nd in the championship leading into Long Beach in two weeks’ time.

If the proud team can muster more pace on Fridays and Saturdays and improve their starting positions, the 2023 season they envisioned will be within reach.

“We move on to the next one, but definitely frustrated,” Rahal said. “I think this entire weekend we expected a lot out of the team and none of us were in the window, and for a team like us it’s absolutely unacceptable.”

Graham Rahal’s Indy 500 run ended in devastating fashion after he lost a tire and crashed

Graham Rahal’s Indy 500 ended early this year.

Graham Rahal’s 2021 Indianapolis 500 run ended in heartbreaking fashion when his No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing lost a tire and sent Rahal into the wall on Sunday.

One of the favorites to win, Rahal was racing for his first Indy 500 win in his 14th start.

He qualified 18th for the race, made his way to the front of the field and led 18 laps around Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s iconic 2.5-mile oval. Not long after the halfway point of the 200-lap, 500-mile race, Rahal went in to pit his car, but that stop didn’t appear to go well.

It looked like the left-rear tire was not fastened to the car properly before Rahal too off. So when he exited pit road, the tire came off the car for a nightmare situation. He spun out of control before crashing into the track’s outside wall in Turn 2, and his rogue tire bounced around the track before hitting Conor Daly’s No. 47 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet.

After wrecking on Lap 119, Rahal was luckily able to climb out of his car, which was destroyed. Daly was able to continue racing, and here’s another look at that wheel coming at him head-on.

After being evaluated and cleared by the infield medical center, a devastated Rahal said, “This one’s hard to accept.” He told NBC Sports:

“It’s famous last words, but we had ’em. We had ’em. The fuel saving that we were doing, the car, you know, we were in the perfect spot. We were just cruising. … I feel like I was doing a good job in the car, we got ourselves where we needed to be. We *had* them today.”

Only the second driver out of the Indy 500 at that point, Rahal finished 32nd.

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With seasons postponed, NASCAR, IndyCar drivers are signing digital autographs for fans

NASCAR and IndyCar drivers are still finding ways to sign autographs away from the track.

Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, NASCAR and the IndyCar Series are among the many sports organizations that have postponed or canceled events in an effort to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, or flatten the curve.

NASCAR postponed a total of seven races through May 3, and it hopes to return to the track the following weekend at Martinsville Speedway. In the meantime, it launched an exhibition iRacing series with some of the biggest names in the sport, like Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch.

IndyCar canceled its season-opening race in St. Petersburg last weekend, along with three more races through the end of April and is looking to kick off the season in early May with the GMR Grand Prix. (IndyCar’s next race after that is the Indianapolis 500 on May 24, which is still on for now.)

Especially at the tracks, both racing series offer a huge amount of fan engagement with drivers regularly signing autographs and taking photos with the people around them. And because of that — along with several other reasons — it’s just not safe for racing to continue. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also recommended the cancellation or postponement of gatherings of 50 people or more for the next eight weeks.

So without racing, many fans are missing out on the opportunity to get autographs from their favorite drivers at the track. Well, drivers have a way around that: digital autographs.

Since last week, people have been sending drivers photos, and the drivers are signing them on their phones and sending them back. This isn’t new for racers and fans, but with the sports world in limbo, it’s a great way to still have some fan interaction.

Earnhardt even jumped in and signed this photo of Landon Cassill and a fan after Cassill signed it.

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