Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard in the No.45 Hy-Vee Honda had a great start to his Portland Grand Prix weekend as he led the opening practice session.
Speaking after setting the fastest time of 00:58.1776s, he commented saying:
The 45 Hy-Vee Honda car is fast, but I think we knew that coming in here. “It’s just nice to have it proven once again. We seem to be very strong on road courses, and I can’t think this team enough for the progress that we’re making on certain tracks.
“I’m a little disappointed in some of the performances we have, but it’s looking promising, and I think we’re there.”
Lundgaard went on to say:
“It was a great start, I would say, I don’t think you can argue with that. We put the Hy-Vee Honda P1 in Practice 1 and we plan to carry that into Practice 2 and qualifying. I think the car is in a good window. We knew we were going to be fast here. There is not much I would really change with it as of now.”
Juri Vips in the No.30 Kustom Entertainment Honda in his first practice session in INDYCAR ended the day in 15th with a time of 00:59.0217s and speaking following the action he said:
The session was awesome; it’s just such a nice feeling getting back in the car again. I really missed it. To be honest, it was a bit easier than I thought it would be. I thought it would take me quite a bit longer to get the confidence up, but it came pretty quick. I’m still nowhere near 100 percent but it’s a transition from not racing for a while to coming straight into a race weekend. We’ve still got a long way to go. We’re P15 is definitely not representative. I think there is a lot of potential in the car and in the package. We’re looking really good as a team. I think it’s going to be a good weekend. It’s very lucky that I got an extra set of Firestone tires for being a rookie. It was definitely appreciated. The first session was about enjoying getting back confidence. Now, it’s about performance the rest of the weekend.”
Graham Rahal in the No.15 PeopleReady Honda was 18th and speaking following the action he commented saying:
think that on primary tires, we’re the fastest car. I’m confident in that but on alternate tires, it just wouldn’t turn at all. I really don’t know why there is such a big balance shift. It’s really frustrating because on blacks on Lap 21, we were quicker than everyone else on primary tires so it’s frustrating not to see the pace on the red’s (alternates). It wasn’t even in the ballpark. We are going to take a long look at it and compare data with my teammates.”