Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing shining as single-car operation
2015 has been a turnaround year for both the team and driver.
Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Michael C. Johnson
Having a single car team in the Verizon IndyCar Series can be an arduous task, especially when three teams owned 12 of the 25 cars that competed in the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
That being sais, having a single car operation score a second place finish is even more of an achievement, and that’s exactly what Graham Rahal has done in back-to-back races. Not to mention the fact that he was driving a Honda, which have struggled to keep pace with the Chevrolets.
It hurts having only one car’s worth of data to look at, but after making a lot of changes in the offseason, having the right people can mitigate that difference in finding the right setup
Graham Rahal
Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing no longer fields a second car on a full-time basis. Rahal has been on a bit of a tear recently and has launched himself up into title contention.
The young driver admits that having just one car is a major hindrance, especially when working on setups.
“It’s very hard because of data. They have four, in this case Andretti here’s got four or five times the amount of data we do, as does Penske, as does Ganassi,” Rahal said.
“So, you’re fighting against the best, and that’s pretty tough, but we’re going to have Oriol back here for the 500 and hopefully we can have a good run of it,” Rahal said.
"It hurts having only one car’s worth of data to look at, but after making a lot of changes in the offseason, having the right people can mitigate that difference in finding the right setup."
“I just think we’re doing all the little things right, and that’s the key is to do the best that we possibly can. The pitstops have been really good, mechanically the car’s been really sound and all these things add up,” Rahal said.
“The strength of our team is the engineering corps that’s come onboard. We’ve been looking at setups, hopefully we can be a little bit better,” Rahal said.
“When you have a team that gels so well, that works so well, that you’re so confident in and [is] giving the driver a better car, it breeds confidence out of the driver,” Rahal said.
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