Graham Rahal addresses 'the most rewarding' aspect of RLL qualifying at Indy

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's Graham Rahal pulled off a sensational qualifying yesterday at the IMS road course. He put his #15 race car in second place behind Alex Palou. His teammates, Devlin DeFrancesco (P5) and the young Louis Foster (P3), also did a brilliant job.

Rahal shed light on what clicked for RLL in the road course qualifying. Via a press conference alongside his teammates, he said:

"It's just nice strategically, for something to actually play out right. I think that's why, maybe, it's most rewarding for all of us sitting up here. You know, we thought long and hard this week about, like, we gotta maximize qualifying, we got to start at the front, because we do have pace and we haven't been doing it this year." Rahal said.

In the final part of the IMS road course qualifying session, Graham Rahal's best time was 1:09.7516 compared to Alex Palou's 1:09.3417. Louis Foster managed 1:09.8801, whereas Devlin DeFrancesco was able to put on board 1:09.9432 for a P5 starting position.

Graham Rahal and RLL 'needed' the strong IMS qualifying

Rahal provided further insights via his team's official website:

"The balance was really consistent and matched my best of the whole day. It feels great for this entire team – everyone on the 15, 30 and 45 teams. We needed this; we expect to be good at the Indy road course race but to see it come together and have three cars in the top five is amazing. It feels awesome for our team." Rahal said.

Graham Rahal has been plying his trade in America's highest class of open-wheel racing since 2008. He has so far amassed over 270 race starts and has also put on board six Grand Prix wins, 29 podiums, and five pole positions.

However, he has yet to win the coveted drivers' championship. His best overall finish in his over a decade-long career is P4, which came in 2015.

In the 2024 IndyCar season, the 36-year-old could only manage an 18th-place finish in the standings. In the process of doing so, he secured 251 points alongside five top-ten finishes.

Considering everything that has been discussed, it will be fascinating to see how many places Rahal will be able to climb in comparison to 2024. After the first four rounds of 2025, he is in 16th place in the standings with 61 points.