Graham Rahal moving on from Barber disappointment as Month of May opens

1 Comment

When considering practice times from the first day of testing the new superspeedway aero kits at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, feel free to disregard Graham Rahal’s.

The ninth-year driver’s fastest time over two sessions in his No. 15 Steak ‘n Shake Honda was 40.5929, the 25th fastest overall among 28 cars.

But Rahal isn’t concerned. While the day was devoted to starting work with the aero kit, his Rahal Letterman Lanigan team was also finishing its use of some old equipment.

“I think our car was actually pretty quick, we just had an old, worn out engine,” Rahal told MotorSportsTalk in a phone interview. “We were trying to get it to the end of its mileage, to get it through and we did it.”

In the new aero kit, Rahal turned 77 laps around the 2.5-mile track where he finished dead last in the 2014 Indianapolis 500 due to electrical issues.

“It felt good and frankly, the nice thing is there was nothing that was too shocking about it,” Rahal said. “I was kind of worried about the first day of running it. I didn’t know what to think about it and frankly it ran really well. I was pleased with it for a first day.”

Once the series is past the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis this Saturday, Rahal’s team will move on to breaking in a new engine for the Indianapolis 500, where his best career finish is third in 2011.

“I think the biggest thing for us is going to be getting that new engine in there, seeing how it runs for us, seeing what kind of speed we can find I think,” Rahal said. “We’re a little bit unsure still…with the car. I don’t think anybody has a great idea of where these things are going to be, we only have one day under our belt, there’s going to be a lot to learn before we get too far down the road here.”

The test on Sunday was Rahal’s first time on a track since he came in second to Josef Newgarden in the Grand Prix of Alabama. Rahal led 17 laps in the race, but a late charge saw him come up 2.206 seconds short of the lead and a shot at his second career win in nine years.

But Rahal isn’t torturing himself by reliving the moment, which he admits is one of the top three of his career, grouped with his 2008 win at St. Petersburg and coming in second at Texas Motor Speedway in 2012 after hitting the wall with three laps to go.

“Maybe one of these days I’ll sit down and take a peek at it,” Rahal said. “I have to admit, I haven’t spent too much time focusing on it at this point.”

Rahal doesn’t believe he needed more than a lap to catch up to Newgarden, as he was gaining two to three seconds a lap after getting past Scott Dixon for second.

“The amount I was catching him was pretty extreme,” Rahal said. “Of course if I got up behind Josef, I think he would have got quicker than what he was. Getting to him and passing him are two different things, but obviously I had a pretty good car and I was able to work around everybody else.”

Rahal says he thought it would be his day for awhile, though he believes had he not received a controversial penalty for contact at St. Petersburg, the season opener would have been an even better chance for win No. 2.

“I was trying to tell myself, ‘Stop, just focus on the job,’ so then I quickly went back to that,” Rahal said. “It’s kind of a shame we came up short, because days like that are hard to come by where you’re so in control of everything. That’s the way these things go and we’ll be back to fight hard for the second win here soon.”

Roger Penske discusses flying tire at Indy 500 with Dallara executives: ‘We’ve got to fix that’

0 Comments

INDIANAPOLIS – Roger Penske spoke with Dallara executives Monday morning about the loose tire that went flying over the Indianapolis Motor Speedway catchfence and into a Turn 2 parking lot.

The left-rear wheel from Kyle Kirkwood’s No. 27 Dallara-Honda was sheared off in a collision at speed as Kirkwood tried to avoid the skidding No. 6 Dallara-Chevrolet of Felix Rosenqvist on Lap 183 of the 107th Indianapolis 500.

No one seriously was hurt in the incident (including Kirkwood, whose car went upside down and slid for several hundred feet), though an Indianapolis woman’s Chevy Cruze was struck by the tire. The Indy Star reported a fan was seen and released from the care center after sustaining minor injuries from flying debris in the crash.

During a photo shoot Monday morning with Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden at the IMS Yard of Bricks, Penske met with Dallara founder and owner Gian Paolo Dallara and Dallara USA CEO Stefano dePonti. The Italian company has been the exclusive supplier of the current DW12 chassis to the NTT IndyCar series for 11 years.

“The good news is we didn’t have real trouble with that tire going out (of the track),” Penske, who bought Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2020, told a few reporters shortly afterward. “I saw it hit. When it went out, I saw we were OK. I talked to the Dallara guys today. We’re going to look at that, but I guess the shear (force) from when (Rosenqvist’s) car was sitting, (Kirkwood’s car) went over and just that shear force tore that tether. Because we have tethers on there, and I’ve never seen a wheel come off.

“That to me was probably the scariest thing. We’ve got to fix that. We’ve got to fix that so that doesn’t happen again.”

Asked by NBC Sports if IndyCar would be able to address it before Sunday’s Detroit Grand Prix or before the next oval race at Iowa Speedway, Penske said, “The technical guys should look at it. I think the speed here, a couple of hundred (mph) when you hit it vs. 80 or 90 or whatever it might be, but that was a pinch point on the race.”

In a statement released Monday to WTHR and other media outlets, IndyCar said that it was “in possession of the tire in Sunday’s incident and found that the tether did not fail. This is an isolated incident, and the series is reviewing to make sure it does not happen again. IndyCar takes the safety of the drivers and fans very seriously. We are pleased and thankful that no one was hurt.”

IndyCar provided no further explanation for how the wheel was separated from the car without the tether failing.

IndyCar began mandating wheel suspension tethers using high-performance Zylon material after a flying tire killed three fans at Charlotte Motor Speedway during a May 1, 1999 race. Three fans also were struck and killed by a tire at Michigan International Speedway during a July 26, 1998 race.

The IndyCar tethers can withstand a force of more than 22,000 pounds, and the rear wheel tethers were strengthened before the 2023 season.