Graham Rahal banked his fourth top-five finish in the last five Verizon IndyCar Series races in Sunday’s Iowa Corn 300 with a fifth place finish, and moved up to sixth in the championship standings.
But while Rahal admitted he was happy to be disappointed with fifth in the No. 15 GEHL Honda after starting 10th, it was slower traffic that drew his ire in his post-race interview.
Rahal used the middle to high line to his advantage throughout the race, which saved right side tire wear, but was annoyed with several other drivers that he felt were discourteous when he was trying to get around them.
“I’ll just say, the courtesy from guys laps down has been poor as of late. We talked about it our driver’s only meetings. Everyone said they’d improve. Today was awful,” Rahal said to NBCSN’s Anders Krohn.
“But I’m so proud of the GEHL team. I wanted to win today so I’m disappointed with fifth, which is a good thing. We’d have liked to gain on Will and Helio.
“I actually felt I had a car equally as good but the track position was hard, as I said under the red flag, there were guys moving up. That was where I was comfortable.”
Despite the frustration and surviving a late scrap with Josef Newgarden, who ended sixth, Rahal said he’s excited to head to Toronto next week, the next street course after sweeping the Detroit doubleheader last month.
“But the guys did a great job. We have to keep our heads down. Toronto, I hope the setup translates well from Detroit.
“Overall a great day. It’s four or five really solid finishes in a row for us right now.”