Graham Rahal on Indy 500: ‘We are confident, right in this thing’
By Mark Carman
After back-to-back runner up finishes, Graham Rahal and his team are ready for the Indy 500 and full of confidence.
Graham Rahal knows a lot has to go right for he and his Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan team to win the Indy 500.
“If we win on Sunday we are going to have really good pit stops. The crew is going to have a huge role in the race,” Rahal said. “We are going to have to pass a bunch of cars and then we are going to have to have reliability and consistency and a little bit of luck.”
Rahal will be driving the No. 15 Steak ‘n Shake starting in the middle of row six. He is tied for 4th in the series standings after finishing second in his last two races. One of the reasons Rahal has been able to be more competitive of late is his new race engineer Eddie Jones. Jones and Rahal have had a challenge on their hands closing the gap between the Chevrolet cars which have run faster this year than Honda.
“We didn’t have the fastest car out there, but, all in all, it is all about consistency, staying out of trouble for 500 miles,” Rahal said. “I feel good about this team.”
Rahal has also been working to bring the popularity of IndyCar back. He is very active on twitter amongst other social media.
What a great turnout for the Public Drivers meeting. I swear @indycar @ims fans are the best in the world! pic.twitter.com/aufFW2REfm
— Graham Rahal (@GrahamRahal) May 23, 2015
Rahal did admit he might spend a little too much time on social media.
“I love Twitter. It’s probably an addiction,” Rahal said. “My fiancee Courtney (Force) would tell you I’m a little too obsessed with it.”
Rahal will be getting married to the Funny Car driver Force in November. They are both children of racing greats, perhaps boosting their connection.
In addition to working with David Letterman, Rahal was a huge fan of the “Late Show.” Rahal lamented his “late nights” won’t be the same with Letterman retiring last week.
“It impacts me the same way it impacts everyone else,” Rahal said. “I do hope we can have Dave here more at the races. Dave is a great guy and a great ambassador for IndyCar racing. Hopefully we can see him more often.”
Asked if the affable Rahal might consider replacing Letterman if he gave up racing, “No, wouldn’t even try.”