Graham Rahal in the No.15 Core Associates Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda says that there is nothing for the team to be ashamed of following their result at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday.
Starting the race from pole, Rahal lost the lead to Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing and came home just 0.4s behind the Iceman and speaking following the race, Rahal said:
We have nothing to be ashamed of, our Code Three #15 car was excellent today, Honda was excellent today, as always. I mean, I’m not bummed [to finish second], but I’m bummed. Even on a day where we did everything right, lady luck wasn’t quite on our side. I think that first yellow hurt us. It went on for a long time and made a two-stop race possible. I knew during that first yellow that Dixon was going to come into play, and he did. On the last two laps, I was on ‘overtake’, but he was too, and I just wasn’t gaining ground. So I couldn’t get close enough to make a lunge at him. But that’s nothing to be ashamed of. We’re going against the best of all time, by far, and we just have keep our heads down, and keep getting better.”
Rahal went on to say:
“I was on overtake on the second-to-last lap; he was, too. “And I just wasn’t gaining ground. I was holding dead even with him for some reason. I don’t know why. I just couldn’t make a lunge at him. I thought that was going to be a really good run at it, a really good shot.
“We have nothing to be ashamed of. We’re going against the best, the best of all time, by far. Nineteen straight seasons with a win? It’s ridiculous. It’s absolutely insane.”