Bobby Rahal and the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team have plenty of work to complete before the next iteration of its three-car NTT IndyCar Series outfit can be confirmed.
Graham Rahal is the only RLL driver signed to return, and with a prime vacancy to fill in the No. 45 Honda vacated by new Arrow McLaren driver Christian Lundgaard and uncertainty over Pietro Fittipaldi’s continuation in the No. 30 Honda, Rahal’s roster is in flux. Ongoing negotiations with Midwest grocery store chain Hy-Vee, which RLL introduced to IndyCar, and other sponsors are crucial to the team’s ability to finalize its lineup.
“We’re getting closer,” Rahal told RACER. “We’re working at it, and certainly sponsorship is key to that, as it is with everybody. In the next couple of weeks, we should have one car identified, and then we’ll see what happens after that, but so far, so good. Can’t say who’s looking good, or who’s not, or who we’re thinking of, but we’re progressing, so stay tuned.”
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Along with fellow co-owners Mike Lanigan and David Letterman, the elder Rahal is searching for at least one driver who can help the team to rebound from another season that fell short of expectations. Lundgaard took the baton from Graham Rahal in 2023 as RLL’s top driver after charging to eighth in the final standings, and while he fell back to 11th in 2024 as the team faced ongoing struggles, the Dane was the team’s top performer over the last two seasons.
Identifying the “next Lundgaard” to maintain the standard established by the No. 45 Honda is critical for RLL, and while the team has some young chargers to consider, Rahal sees his son – following a year to forget after placing 18th in the championship – as being in the perfect position to bounce back and lead the revised driver trio forward.
“I have complete confidence in Graham,” the 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner said of his son who’ll turn 36 in January. “This year, I think he had probably more top 12 qualifying results than he did a year ago (from six in 2023 to seven in 2024), but he paid the price with engine penalties. We had seven engine penalties this year, which really hurts. We figured we had 65 grid position penalties amongst the team this year, and that’s hard to recover from, but in any event, [Graham] has still got it. The pace is still there, and the desire is still there.
“Clearly, you look beyond him, and there’s a generational change starting to happen in the sense that guys like Scott Dixon and Will Power are all now in their early 40s, mid 40s. I drove to 45, so it can still be done, but you definitely have to be looking at the newer generation. There’s people coming from Europe, people from the Indy NXT paddock, and there’s a lot more younger guys out there looking for rides, so you have to be open and take a longer-term view of who you bring on because that’s the environment right now.
“This happened years ago when I got to IndyCar. Between ’82 and ’84, a lot of new guys came in, a lot of older guys left, and we’re going through the same thing again, so it’ll be interesting because you’ve got a lot of people coming from Formula 2 that have done tests and there’s some good guys there. We’re at that point in the next couple years with the younger generation coming in that we have to plan for.”
RLL has F2 standout Juri Vips on retainer and IndyCar free agents Rinus VeeKay and Linus Lundqvist are among the many drivers who hope to get the nod from the team to replace Lundgaard. The fate of Fittipaldi, whose backers secured the No. 30 entry for the Miami-born Brazilian, is another lingering question for RLL to answer. With adequate sponsorship in hand, Rahal would like to continue the practice of hiring an elite driver to wield the No. 45, and the following decision on who’ll pilot the No. 30 is likely to be informed by the quality of the driver’s skill and funding.
“All I know is, whoever we ask to come join the team, we’re gonna have confidence that they can be competitive and run the in top six, top eight,” Rahal said of the No. 45 car. “When you saw the results of [Linus] Lundqvist, and others that came straight from Indy NXT, it doesn’t seem to be a big jump, and they can get the job done, so that’s good for the series.
“Certainly it’s a really legitimate training ground for guys wanting to make the next step up, and I’m not sure you could always say that. The next six weeks is going to be exciting times for the series.”
Speculation has been rife in relation to RLL and its ability to retain Hy-Vee as the primary sponsor of the No. 45 entry. There have been consistent rumors over the last month of a general reduction in the company’s expenditures on racing, which includes a partnership with Penske Entertainment in the funding and promotion of the doubleheader event at Iowa Speedway, and a possible splitting of its expenditures to partially cover the No. 45 and for Penske to pay for its affiliated AJ Foyt Racing entry for David Malukas.
“Well, we’re not there yet, but certainly I’m hopeful,” Rahal said of signing an extension. “That’s probably going to be one of the things that we’re going to hear about soon. My understanding is that Hy-Vee is cutting back on a lot of their sports properties, and even the [Iowa] event to some extent, is what I hear. I don’t know what that really means, but obviously, there’s still going to be a race in Iowa, but we’re going to know fairly soon.”
On the topic of potentially losing out on sponsorship to the team owned by the series’ owner, Rahal said he isn’t focusing his energies on supposition.
“I would say we’ve had a very strong relationship with everybody at Hy-Vee, so I wouldn’t listen too much to those rumors,” he surmised. “But we’re waiting for a direction from them, and hopefully it’ll be a good one.”
