Christian Lundgaard in the No.45 Hy-Vee Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda says the car has been fast as he secured his maiden NTT INDYCAR SERIES P1 Award for GMR Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the IMS road course.
The Dane set a time of 01:09.4639s and speaking following the action he commented saying:
The Hy-Vee Honda has been fast all day. I was hoping for this but I wasn’t quite expecting it. I can finally call this (IMS) home, I think. It feels amazing. Waking up this morning, I knew we were going to have a chance to get into the Fast Six because we’ve done that pretty much every time we’ve been here and I hoped it was going to happen, and now I can sit here and it’s a reality, which is pretty cool. Honestly, right now it feels awesome getting my first NTT P1 award, but with that said, Jack is P4 and Graham is P8. That is the best qualifying we’ve had in those two years that we’ve been teammates. I think it shows the progress that we’re on. It’s taken a little longer than we would have liked, but now we’ve got to finish it off tomorrow, but I’m just super happy for the team.
“My podium here last year, it was a big relief for me and the team. I knew my ability to be able to finish on the podium. I know what I’m capable of. But to deliver it to the team is what meant the most to me, and this, too. Everyone works so hard. We built a new facility. It hasn’t paid off until now, so we’re going to keep digging deep. Honestly, I didn’t really think that lap was good enough, but I was a little annoyed that Jack was faster than me on the first run because that used to be my number, and I saw it on top, so I was like, yes! No, wait a minute, that’s not me anymore. That just shows what it means to the team, as well, having two cars in there. I would have liked to share the front row with him, though, but we’ll save that for another time.”
Jack Harvey in the No.30 Kustom Entertainment Honda starts the race from fourth on the grid with a time of 01:09.6899s and speaking following the action he commented saying:
“I think it was just honestly a fantastic team performance. Absolutely amazing job to everyone at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing to dive into the problems that we’ve had and be able to come to the track with a good solution. Obviously, congrats to Christian and everyone on the No. 45 Hy-Vee car for the pole position today. I thought we were very, very close to him in P4 and hardly any time away from it. Graham and the No. 15 did a great job in P8. I just want to do these pole performances shoot outs all of the time because qualifying is much more fun when you’re doing it for all three rounds. I’m really happy for everyone on the No. 30 Kustom Entertainment car. I don’t see any reason why we can’t push for a podium tomorrow and let’s go for the win!”
Graham Rahal in the No.15 Fifth Third Bank Honda had a great session too as he starts the race from eighth place with a time of 01:10.2950s and speaking following the action he commented saying:
I think we’re always traditionally pretty solid here but the boys and engineering staff have done a great job in just getting our cars into a better window. Obviously Christian and Jack have done a wonderful job all day. For us to close the gap (from the previous sessions) to them like that was pretty good. I’ve been struggling a lot more with the rear of my car then they have but I’m bummed. I’m not going to lie, I was on one that was a 3.0 or so, so to not make it to Round 3 is a disappointment. I guess I lost it in Turn 9 but, man, is this not the most competitive motorsport in the world? I mean, when you’re talking earlier today two-tenths was the difference between second and 15th. It’s unbelievable and you can’t miss a beat. But we’ve got a good start for the No. 15 Fifth Third Bank car.”