Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Pre-Race Notes
Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana – NOLA Motorsports Park, Avondale, LA
Round 2 of 16 in the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series
DATE: Friday – Sunday, April 10-12, 2015
QUALIFYING BROADCAST: Live on NBCSN at 5 p.m. ET, Saturday, April 11. Also on the IMS Radio Network,
www.indycar.com (timing & scoring + commentating), and www.indycarradio.com
RACE BROADCAST: Live on NBCSN, Sunday, April 12 at 2:30 p.m. ET
RADIO BROADCAST: The race will air on IMS Radio Network, XM 209 & Sirius 213
TRACK LAYOUT: 2.74-mile, 13-turn street course
RACE LENGTH: 75 laps / 205.5 miles
2014 WINNER/POLESITTER: Inaugural event
RAHAL’S HIGHEST SERIES
START/FINISH: Pole at St. Pete 2009 (street) & Kansas 2009 (oval) / 1st in St. Pete in 2008
NEWS & NOTES:
RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING AT NOLA
The Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana will be the inaugural IndyCar Series event at NOLA Motorsports Park in Avondale, La., approximately 20 minutes from New Orleans and the famed French Quarter. Graham Rahal will pilot the No. 15 D-A Lubricant Company entry. This partnership marks a return to Indy car racing for D-A Lubricant Co., based in Lebanon, IN, who sponsored entries in theIndianapolis 500 from 1955 – 1958 with a highest finish of sixth in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” in 1956 with driver Bob Sweikert. D-A-sponsored cars also ran in the USAC Championship Car series during that time period, earning one win in 1957 and four wins in 1958. RLL’s first test with the new Honda aero kit took place at this track on March 14.
RAHAL ON EXPECTATIONS FOR THE INDY GP OF LOUISIANA
“We’re looking forward to running the D-A Lubricant Company colors at NOLA. They have been a great partner so far and bring a lot of enthusiasm so we want to have a good race weekend for them. New Orleans is tricky because it’s a very flat track so there aren’t a lot of reference markers for the drivers. When we normally race you see a certain marker, spot on the ground or, at times, a shadow and you know you have to brake right at that point. The NOLA track is very flat so it’s hard to have any of that. It’s a track that’s very demanding and it’s very important to get the maximum out of the car. It seems to be one of the most difficult tracks to put a lap time together completely and get the best out of yourself and every corner. Having said all of that, we’re looking forward to going there. Even with an eleventh place result in St. Pete, we feel we had one of the best cars in the race and the team has a lot of momentum and can’t wait to get on track again. I really think that all signs are pointing to us being able to have a great year. Our goal is to go to New Orleans and try to rack up as many points as we can, move ourselves up in the championship and kick off Long Beach and the rest of the season.”
GRAHAM ON THE LEVEL OF COMPETITION AT ST. PETE
“For sure the competitiveness of the teams and of the series is tremendous. Penske was very good in qualifying and they obviously had a good race too but I think we are seeing that there are a lot of teams that are very, very close together. You certainly can’t slip up and in qualifying we slipped up a little bit and had our worst session of the weekend and that really hurt us. We need to make sure we are on top of our game because there is no margin for error with the field as tight as it is. You have to be on it and that’s what makes the Verizon IndyCar Series so exciting right now.”
NOLA COULD BE THE MOST PHYSICAL RACE OF THE SEASON
“Physically at St. Pete I felt extremely good. After the race I felt like I had just completed a practice session and not a full race distance. I feel like I have done a pretty good job of getting my cardio, race-shape strong which is going to be important in NOLA. The track is very physical on the neck which is going to make for a long day but hopefully it will play out in our favor.”
-RLL-
