Conor Daly in the No.30 MiJack Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda was delighted with his first day as a team employee.
The Noblesville native has replaced Jack Harvey for the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway and immediately made an impression.
Daly ended the practice session as the fastest Rahal car in eighth place.
Speaking following the action he said:
Day 1 as a Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing employee went great. It was the most boring day of all time for a long time. It was the longest rain delay I think I’ve ever been a part of but once we got going it was great; the car felt great. It was a lot to adjust to for me. It was a new environment but we were fast right out of the gate. I think we know we left a little bit on the table with a bit of a moment in Turns 3-4 on our best lap but it feels good. I can’t wait for tomorrow. There is still a lot more to learn but we’re going to try to make the best of it. And I’m excited and just thankful to be here with this team and I love this track so I can’t wait for tomorrow.”
Christian Lundgaard in the No.45 Hy-Vee Honda was 20th and speaking following the practice session he said:
“It’s been a long day with the rain delay. I just glad to have it over with now. I think the car has some difficulties. Overall, we’re not as fast as we expected to be but I think there is potential in some of the things we were doing. I’m interested to see how the alternate tires will perform in the race. We will go into qualifying with a full send and see how the race goes.”
Graham Rahal in the No.15 Hogan Transportation Honda ended the day in 28th place after a tricky practice and speaking following the action he said:
At the start, we were really unstable and then we made a ride height change and we might have accidently gotten ride heights mixed up. There was a lot of weight to the left front. I felt it and came in, the team checked but didn’t see anything so I went back out and almost lost it in Turn 1. We lost 30 minutes after that trying to figure it out, but confirmed the cross weight was way off. Unfortunately we didn’t get to run. We didn’t do a qual sim, not one, we didn’t run the reds (alternate tires). We did an out lap on them but didn’t get to run them. With all the issues we had, we decided not to do the high-line practice. It’s a shame to go right into qualifying with no idea what its going to be like. Whatever Conor found – they made some spring changes – we’re just going to have to copy that and go from there.”