Rahal says dominant win justified yesterday’s confidence

The Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda driver not only scored his first pole for eight years, he also went on to lead 55 of the race’s 70 laps.

Afterward he told the media: “As I said to you guys yesterday – and trust me, a lot of drivers didn't like my comment – I felt like I could dominate if I got out front.

“I didn't lie. I didn't say that in any other way other than I felt that confident in my car. I just knew if I could be out front in clean air, we could do what we did today.

“I don't know that I've ever felt that confident in my entire career going into a race day as we did today. I just felt like if everything went well, that we were going to be very hard to beat. And that proved to be true today.

“We were firing on all cylinders today. We were able to match whatever pace we needed to. We were able to run some blistering fast times while saving a ton of fuel. So thanks to Honda for that. I could certainly do the number that I needed to.”

Rahal went on to pay tribute to his team, both the engineers and the crew, after his two-stop strategy paid off, largely thanks to his near-unique ability to keep his red alternate tires under him for a full stint.

“I got to say thanks to my boys,” he said. “The guys did a great job in the pits [and congratulations to] all the guys that came up with this setup. We rolled off the truck and it was right there. So definitely pleased with that because we changed one thing this weekend. That doesn't normally happen, so I'm really excited about that.

“The reds were extremely consistent. I went red, black, black, as I said after qualifying I was going to do. We stretched the reds the first stint. I know Helio [Castroneves] said he couldn't make them live.

“I told you guys earlier I thought for whatever reason my driving style, I don't tend to use tires as hard. I don't know why that is. I really don't. My last lap on reds, was my fastest lap, on lap 24.

“So I was good. The middle stint on blacks, the car was absolutely phenomenal. I was able to save a ton of fuel and still do, you know, 75.1s, which nobody at the time was anywhere near that. The last stint, I just kind of cruised. I tried to manage my gaps. I didn't need to save much. I was saving just to learn for tomorrow."