Runner-up for the second race in a row isn’t Graham Rahal’s ideal finishing position, but it’s quite an accomplishment after qualifying 17th for the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
Rahal, driving the No. 15 Steak ‘n Shake Honda for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, rolled across the finish line 1.5023 seconds behind Team Penske’s Will Power.
The 15 positions gained were a field high. Rahal also was second in the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama on April 26 at Barber Motorsports Park.
“This team has really turned a corner, but those Penske guys are no slouches. It’s pretty hard to beat them,” Rahal said. “I’m very confident in myself and very confident in my team. That’s the biggest thing. I have all of the confidence in the world that Honda’s going to keep working hard and we’re going to get better aero kits and power and we’ll be able to challenge these guys even more.
“The biggest thing after Barber was to carry the momentum into May and now we need to carry that momentum into the ‘500’ and we’ve got that so hopefully we can keep it going.”
Takuma Sato, driving the No. 14 ABC Supply Honda for AJ Foyt Racing, earned his first top 10 of the season by moving 13 positions.
“A very good day. I enjoyed the race,” said Sato, who finished ninth. “As the track got better because there was more rubber on it, our car was reacting better so our lap times came back. The boys did a fantastic job to get me out with very quick pit stops and I had a couple of fun overtakes on track and we came back strong for our first top-10 finish – finally.”
Charlie Kimball also earned his first top 10 of the season. After qualifying 14th, he placed fifth. In the inaugural race in 2014, Kimball also finished fifth -- after qualifying 23rd.
“The No. 83 NovoLog Flex Pen Chevrolet was just really fast today and I was consistently hitting the fuel numbers they were giving me. I have to give a lot of credit to the guys on pit lane – they’re just so consistently fast,” said Kimball, whose previous best finish was 12th at Barber Motorsports Park on April 26.
“They’ve been so good all season and we just ran into bad luck in those first four races. We’ll definitely take the momentum from this solid finish into the rest of the month of May.”
Andretti Autosport teammates Marco Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Carlos Munoz all advanced eight positions. Hunter-Reay, in 11th, was the highest finisher of the group.