Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal in the No.15 United Rentals Honda ran up front all day during the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on Sunday and looked on target for his second podium of the season but had to settle for a fourth place finish.
Speaking following the action he said:
A fourth place finish for us in Monterey in the United Rentals machine. It was a solid day. Obviously, we would have liked to finish on the podium or be able to challenge. At the start I think it took us a little longer to get our momentum going through maybe into the second stint before we started to pass guys and get moving forward. Our guys were once again excellent in the pits. Squirrel (race engineer, Allan McDonald), Eddie (Jones), Brandon (Fry), all the engineers and everybody across the three cars has done a great job to get these race cars more competitive. Obviously, it would have been nice to start up front and we should’ve; it was my mistake yesterday. Starting up front would have made us potentially even a winner today. I’m super proud of our guys, super proud of the organization, we are moving forward, we are getting better. I passed more cars today then maybe any race all year. The United Rentals guys did an excellent job in the pits once again. We raised almost another $5,000 for Turns For Troops to help with Veterans. It was another solid result on the year.”
Takuma Sato in the No.30 Panasonic MiJack Honda made contact with Scott Dixon after spinning and was forced to retire from the race with a mechanical issue.
Speaking following the action he said:
So we had a very sweet race the first half of the race. We took advantage of an early pitstop for the first yellow and then the car was great. This morning I was the third fastest in warmup so totally different from yesterday’s car and it worked very well. I really enjoyed the racing, overtaking lots of cars today and we went as high as second. Our pace was exactly the same as the leader, which was very positive. But on the third stint, unfortunately I clipped the curb on the inside of the corkscrew, which I had never done but I did it somehow. I made a mistake and spun. Then unfortunately we got tangled with Dixon and the diffuser was damaged and the track rod was broken so I came back to the pit and changed the things. But unfortunately, the car was way too damaged and we had to retire in the end. We had a great potential today to finish really high, but the last few races I think the team has found a lot of speed. It’s very positive, and hopefully we have a good race in Long Beach.”
Oliver Askew in the No.45 Hy-Vee Honda came home in a solid ninth place and speaking following the action he said:
We finished ninth in the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda with RLL. It was a long, very physical race. I thought we had some good pace. Unfortunately, we lost a couple of spots there in pit lane on the first stop. I’m happy with a top-10 today. We had great pace all weekend and great momentum moving into Long Beach. We started fifth and got shuffled back a little bit on the start with the championship contenders next to me; they were a bit ruthless. And then we had a slow pit stop unfortunately here and that lost us a couple of positions, and then the race went green to the end after that initial yellow. We made a couple of good overtakes on guys who were trying to make it on a two-stop strategy. I’m happy with today and happy with the weekend overall.”