Graham Rahal, No. 02 McDonald’s Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We struggled with a lot of under steer since the start and it was really hard for me to get the car down at the exit of Turn 4. The last two laps, I crept up a little too high and it cost us a lot of speed. We made a lot of improvements today thought because when we showed up the McDonald’s car was a real handful. This has been a challenging place for me for sure. We’re pretty happy to be where we are. Obviously Alex had a good run too so, for the team, it’s good. We’ll keep working on this obviously and hopefully we’ll get the McDonald’s boys up front in the race.”
FAST FACTS: Will be his first race here. In 2008, he missed the season-opening race here due to a crash in T2 on the final day of a two-day test here on Tuesday night of race week. The team was unable to repair the car in time for race weekend and Rahal watched from the spotter’s stand….Highest start this season is two poles (St. Pete/street & Kansas/oval) and highest finish is third place at Richmond and Japan…Is ranked 7th in series points with 366 (only -15 to Patrick, 381).
Alex Lloyd, No. 40202 HER Energy Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Everybody at HER Energy and Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing is very excited about our starting position. I was fortunate enough to win here. Racing here in an Indy car is different than in an Indy Lights car but at the same time its nice to have some experience at the track and have that feeling. It’s great to be back competing in the IndyCar Series. We had a good car in qualifying and a good car in traffic. We want to go out there and be able to mix it up. There are some things I need to learn but at the same time I think we can run at the front. Having only done the race at Indianapolis, it feels like a very quick weekend.”
FAST FACTS: It is his highest starting position of his three IndyCar Series starts…Will be his second race here. Started second and won the 2007 Indy Lights race here in his title winning season. The Lights race was with Sam Schmidt Motorsports…It is his first race with the team and third in the IndyCar Series after competing in the Indy 500 in 2008 & 2009.
NHLR AT HOMESTEAD: The team competed in six events here from 1996-2000 (Michael Andretti & Christian Fittipaldi) and in 2008 (Justin Wilson). In total NHR has earned TWO WINS (Andretti – 1997, 1998) and THREE PODIUM finishes here (2nd – Andretti 1999, after he stalled on final stop while making a run at the leader). Fittipaldi earned the team’s highest start here of fourth place in 1998 and his highest finish here was also fourth that same year. Wilson started and finished 15th in the team’s first race as a fulltime entrant in the IndyCar Series here in 2008.
Tune In… The race will be broadcast live on VERSUS Saturday, October 10 at 4:00 p.m. EDT. The radio broadcast of the race will be carried on www.indycar.com. As always, fans can follow the action from every on-track session via the official website of the IndyCar Series, www.indycar.com.
