The range of emotions Graham Rahal has gone through in 2023 is a story in its self.
After being at arguable his lowest point in his IndyCar career at this year’s Indianapolis 500, Graham Rahal is riding high into Saturday’s Gallagher Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Being the quickest during the morning practice session, Rahal was able to back up that performance by putting the No. 15 Honda on pole for tomorrow’s race.
Rahal, who navigated his way through both rounds of qualifying saved his best for last. With just a handful of seconds left, Rahal put down a lap of 1:10.1132 seconds which outpaced his RLL teammate Christian Lundgaard by 0.1154 who will roll off P2.
The Ohio native captures his 4th career NTT P1 Award and his 1st since Belle Isle in 2017.
“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.”
“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.”
Mixed IndyCar grid
Behind the all RLL front row, it’s an all Arrow McLaren 2nd row. Alexander Rossi in his No. 7 Chevrolet will slot in at P3 with a lap of 1:10.2932 seconds just 0.1800 seconds behind the leader, while fellow teammate Pato O’Ward in his No. 5 Chevrolet checking in at P4 with a time of 1:10.3453 seconds. Row 3 is all Andretti Autosport with Devlin DeFrancesco in his No. 29 Honda making his 1st Firestone Fast 6 and rolling off P5 and teammate Romain Grosjean in his No. 28 Honda, whose still searching for his 1st career win in the NTT IndyCar Series starts P6.
Current series points leader Alex Palou, who is looking to put some more distance between himself and Josef Newgarden will start P9.
“Confident for tomorrow, but obviously a bit bummed not being in the Fast Six,” Palou said. “We’re starting P9 tomorrow, right? So, it’s not a bad starting position. We can do a lot from there, especially being such a long race with the strategy.”
Newgarden himself was not pleased with his qualifying result. The IndyCar Championship contender failed to get out of Round 1 will start tomorrow’s Grand Prix from P19.
.@IMS never disappoints.
Where did your favorite driver finish qualifying?
#INDYCAR // #GallagherGP pic.twitter.com/C4uJ7znPhH— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) August 11, 2023
Up Next: Final Practice, Friday 4:00 PM / ET
