Rahal leads all Honda, RLL Front Row Sweep at the Brickyard

Comunicato Stampa disponibile solo in lingua originale. 

• Graham Rahal, Christian Lundgaard sweep Fast Six qualifying for Honda and Rahal Letterman Lanigan on the #indianapolis Motor Speedway road course
• Andretti Autosport’s Devlin DeFrancesco posts career-best qualifying run to start fifth; teammate Romain Grosjean to start sixth
• Honda powers eight of the top 12 in NTT INDYCAR SERIES qualifying

Graham Rahal led the way for Honda Saturday on the #indianapolis Motor Speedway, claiming the pole in qualifying for Saturday’s Gallagher Grand Prix, 14th round in the #2023nttindycarseries.  The pole is the 10th of the season for Honda and the fourth career pole for Rahal.

Teammate and Toronto race winner Christian Lundgaard completed the front row qualifying sweep for Honda and Rahal Letterman Lanigan #racing; with Andretti Autosport’s Devlin DeFrancesco qualifying a career-best fifth, just ahead of teammate Romain Grosjean.

Rookie Marcus Armstrong also will have his career-best start tomorrow after qualifying seventh for Chip Ganassi #racing as Honda powered eight of the top 12 qualifiers today at IMS.

Gallagher Grand Prix Honda Qualifying Results

•   1st Graham Rahal                    Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
•   2nd Christian Lundgaard           Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda   
•   5th Devlin DeFrancesco            Andretti Autosport Honda
•   6th Romain Grosjean                Andretti Autosport Honda
•   7th Marcus Armstrong-R           Chip Ganassi #racing Honda
•   8th Jack Harvey                       Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda    
•   9th Alex Palou                          Chip Ganassi #racing Honda
• 12th Helio Castroneves              Meyer Shank #racing Honda
• 13th Colton Herta                       Andretti Autosport Honda
• 14th Linus Lundqvist-R               Meyer Shank #racing Honda
• 15th Kyle Kirkwood                    Andretti Autosport Honda
• 16th Scott Dixon                         Chip Ganassi #racing Honda
• 18th Marcus Ericsson                 Chip Ganassi #racing Honda
• 23rd David Malukas                    Dale Coyne #racing with HMD Honda
• 25th Sting Ray Robb-R               Dale Coyne #racing with RWR Honda

R – Rookie

Quotes
Graham Rahal (#15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda) pole qualifier, fourth career pole and first pole of 2023: "The pole here means a lot, not just for me, but for our whole team. Everybody’s seen us struggle earlier this year.  We had to work ridiculously hard to work our way back to the sharp end of the field. The team has been improving all summer. For Christian [Lundgaard] to be P2 and for Jack [Harvey] just missing out [of Fast Six final qualifying]. It means the world to this entire organization.  It’s just nice to feel competitive and to be able to push and get something out of the car. You ask for it, and it’s there. It feels really sweet.  Hopefully it will make things a lot easier tomorrow!”

Devlin DeFrancesco (#29 Andretti Autosport Honda) qualified career-best fifth: “Honestly, I was very happy with how we rolled off in practice. Going into qualifying, we did a few things I felt we needed to nail down the balance. Then, from the start of qualifying all the way through Fast Six, we didn’t change much.  Very happy with how we ended up today and looking forward to the race tomorrow!”

Fast Facts

• Honda’s most recent win on the IMS road course came in May, as Alex Palou scored the first of his four wins to date this season; as the Chip Ganassi Honda driver seeks his second NTT INDYCAR SERIES Drivers’ Championship in 2023.
• In 2022, Colton Herta bested the field despite constantly changing weather conditions and a wet/dry/wet track to win the GMR Grand Prix in May; and Marcus Ericsson won the #indianapolis 500. In July, Alexander Rossi completed a Honda sweep of IndyCar race victories at IMS last year as he and Christian Lundgaard finished 1-2 in the Gallagher Grand Prix.
• In 2020, Scott Dixon and #grahamrahal scored a 1-2 finish for Honda, with Colton Herta finishing fourth. Honda drivers went on to win the #indianapolis 500 in both 2020 (Takuma Sato, his second ‘500’ victory) and 2021 (Helio Castroneves, for his record-tying fourth win at the Brickyard).