IndyCar: Rahal wins pole for Gallagher GP

Graham Rahal was quickest in the first practice on Friday morning for the Gallagher GP, and then backed that up to take pole in the afternoon.

“I think those reds (alternate Firestone tires) threw everybody for a loop compared to the May race,” Rahal said.

“It’s a different compound, back to 2021, and it was way more understeer than what we were probably expecting.

Rahal’s qualifying time of 1m10.1132s was slower than what he set in morning practice in his Rahal Letterman Lanigan #15 Honda on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. It his first NTT P1 Award in six years.

“It means a lot,” Rahal said. “Everybody has seen it: We’ve had to work ridiculously hard to get back. This isn’t a win, but it feels like it for us. It’s just nice to feel competitive; it’s nice to be able to push and get something out of the car. You ask for it, you demand it, and it’s there. It feels really sweet.”

Christian Lundgaard made it an RLL 1-2 in his #45 HyVee Honda, 0.11s behind his teammate.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do tomorrow,” Toronto race winner Lundgaard said. “The team is strong. I certainly think we can do something great tomorrow. We’ve got two opportunities on splitting strategy and seeing what works best. I’m definitely hungry for another win, but at this point, I’m really happy for Graham to get his pole.”

Last year’s race winner, Alexander Rossi will start third in his #7 Arrow McLaren Chevy.

Rossi’s teammate, Pato O’Ward was 4th and Devlin DeFrancesco put in his best-ever IndyCar performance to start 5th.

Romain Grosjean rounded out the Firestone Fast Six at 1:10.4021 in the No. 28 DHL Honda fielded by Andretti Autosport.

Graham Rahal

“We were on the front row at Mid-Ohio but to be on pole isn’t something im not known for so to be able to put it together and get ourselves a great shot to go win tomorrow means the world to me.

“I certainly can sleep a little easier tonight Its not a win but it feels like it. We knocked on the door at Mid-Ohio but to be here this time around and put Code 3 Associates on the pole means the world to me. And also for these guys who have busted their butts all year. They deserve it.

“It’s truly good to be able to just translate what we had in practice, to make it improve to qualifying. Frankly, the very first Q1, I think we were still P2 or 3, but I was not pleased at all with the car. Even in Q2 we were P1, but it was just a terrible lap. That’s always a good sign.

“It’s nice to be able to feel that way. It’s been a long, long time since I felt very in control, could make it happen when we needed to, put it together. Q3, was really tricky, frankly. My brake pedal was really, really long through all of qualifying, which it was this morning, too. We bled them. I thought it was going to be better.

“It wasn’t. I locked a few times in Q3. Kind of released the pedal and hoped it stuck, and it worked out. It’s awfully nice to be able to have the Code 3 Associates car up front, to be able to go challenge from there with some clear road ahead.

“We’ll see how the start goes and things like that. But clear road ahead. We’ll see how it plays out.

(On not qualifying for the Indy 500 in May:) You move on from May as best you can. There’s a lot of frequent reminders about what happened there, not only in qualifying, but the car not running at the start of the race, things like that. Those are things that build character.

“I haven’t told many people this, but when I got back to my phone after May, after qualifying, the very first voice mail I had was from Al Unser Jr.

“You see somebody like him who’s been here, who’s won here, but he’s also seen the lows of the low. The best have went through it. Definitely seeing his name on my phone lifted my spirits a lot.

“You come back here, this is a totally different rodeo, but it still means a lot. To be able to run up front, as our team, too, Christian right next to me, Jack just missing out on Q3.

“We’ve been strong here on the road course. It’s nice that it’s me, not the roles reversed. Hopefully we can translate that into a heck of a good day tomorrow.

“I don’t know what it is about Indy, but we all talk about it as a living being, that it kind of writes its own story. I say it every year: in this large book that’s gone on a hundred-plus years now, a lot of people have had the chance to have their chapter.

“Some people like Helio have several in the book. You just hope it’s your time. 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.”

Christian Lundgaard

Lundgaard is happy with 2nd in Indy     Photo courtesy of Penske Entertainment: Travis Hinkle

Christian Lundgaard, could not beat Rahal’s time to take the pole away from his Rahal Lettterman Lanigan teammate.  The young Danish driver has really turned his season around since May, with the race win in Toronto and two poles this season.

When asked about his second place start for tomorrow, Lundgaard replied, “I’m not going to lie, I think the team is so excited about Graham being on pole.”

“But no, I mean, we are strong here. Graham was strong already this morning. Every time we come to this racetrack, we know we’ll be able to fight for a win. Now we’ve just given ourselves two chances.”

“In that matter, I think it’s all about executing tomorrow.  We’ve proven that we can do it on one-lap place. We struggled in the May race on the consistency throughout a stint, the strategy decision making. Now we have two opportunities to make up for that.”

“I think it all starts with the car is really competitive around here. We’ve shown it every single time we’ve been on track. I don’t necessarily think it’s just me that’s in the team. I mean, I just got out-qualified by Graham. Technically everybody did.”

“He’s just been really, really strong and difficult to beat today. I think certainly there was some small mistakes that I could have prevented to jump ahead. Right now we put ourselves in a good position, so I’m not going to sit here and say I’m mad about qualifying second ’cause I’m certainly not.”

“I think we’ve made the car better in race trim. We’ll see tomorrow.”

Qualifying Results

Lucille Dust reporting live from Indianapolis