Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal in the No.15 Fifth Third Bank Honda heads into May, aiming for a strong race at this weekend’s GMR Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the IMS road course on Saturday. Graham has solid results here and will be looking for another podium finish and speaking ahead of the race this weekend, he said:
“I’m looking forward to GMR Grand Prix. It’s a place and it’s a track that we’ve always done pretty well at. I’ve finished as the bridesmaid a couple of times there but obviously would like to find our way to the top step. I’ve had some good shots before and got a little unlucky but seemingly we’ve been able to put ourselves in contention a lot and hopefully we can do that again. Christian did a great job at Barber, and I think that we as a team simply need to close the gap a little bit further on my car. We’ve got to get the car more to my liking. I’ve certainly struggled a little bit with the feel this year and getting some of the things out of it that I want. But having said that you’re only a couple of tenths off. It’s just so competitive and so close that you just can’t miss. It’s a place that we have high hopes for, and high expectations and we need to kick this month off right.”
Jack Harvey, in the No.30 Kustom Entertainment Honda, returns to the scene of his best NTT INDYCAR SERIES finish to date. In 2019, the Englishman finished on the podium in third place and speaking ahead of the race this weekend, Harvey commented saying:
“Naturally I am looking forward to the GP. It’s a track that historically I’ve gone quite well at. I equaled my best start and had the best finish that I’ve had in INDYCAR there. Last year the race didn’t quite pan out great after it rained. We showed a lot of pace, qualifying was good. I’m just excited to be getting the whole of the month started. Hopefully we have a smooth and good weekend that we can just continue to build momentum off of. I think we learned some bits in Barber that we can hopefully carry with us for the whole of the season. I’m very excited to come back to the GP. I always feel it, I always believe it: someone is going to win the race. Why not us? I’m going there with maximum positivity; maximum optimism and I’m just going to try to put ourselves in the best position to have ourselves a fantastic weekend.”
Christian Lundgaard in the No.45 Hy Vee Honda, is looking forward to the GMR Grand Prix of Indianapolis, saying:
“I love the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. I’ve been fast there and made my debut at the track and I’ve had it (the race) both in the rain and in the dry now. We got our first podium there as a team last year. I finished second in July, and I hope to win it this year, that’s the only step and the only target I have for this weekend. But I’m super excited to be back. It’s the first of two this year, and the one in the month of May. You want to start the month of May off well, but you don’t want to take your win too early either. Obviously coming off of Barber with a good performance, finishing sixth, it was a consistent weekend, we were around that sixth position the whole weekend from Practice 1 until the race. I got into the Firestone Six and we’ll see if we can get in there again this week. We’ve been in there almost all of the races I’ve actually raced in at the Indy GP so that will definitely be a target for us again. But going off our performance last year, I’m pretty sure we’ll have a strong performance there. Personally, I feel confident. As a team I think we feel very confident as well. I think it’s the most confident race that we will go into this season so I’m sure we’ll do well and get the Hy-Vee car up front. The momentum that we gained at the end of the season in 2022 helped our season in general. Momentum can turn your season up or down either way. Luckily, we’re on the up. We didn’t get a performance like this (sixth at Barber) until the Indy GP last year which was at the end of July and we’ve just gotten into May so it’s a lot earlier, which is looking good for the championship.”