Graham Rahal continued the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) resurgence with a third-place finish in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.
The result didn’t come without some adversity, though, after being hit-and-spun from behind by Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyffin Simpson entering Turn 3 on Lap 39.
“I don’t think overall I was not very pleased in the early phase with Kyffin,” said Rahal, 37. “Battling hard there in the top 7, 8, 9, but it’s early in the race. You’ve got to let it kind of come to you.
“I don’t even know what happened. All I know is I got hit hard in the back, and that was very frustrating, kind of put me on the back foot.”
Relegated back to 23rd, Rahal methodically marched forward over the next 61 laps, leaning on pace, dodging chaos, and near the end, fending off Pato O’Ward with no push-to-pass left.
“Well, I was fast today, and I knew that,” said Rahal, who started 12th. “That’s what pissed me off the most. That’s what made me most mad was that I was able to truly motor through some guys early, and like, I felt really good. So when I got hit, I was just like, ticked.
“But at the end of the race we were, too. I didn’t have overtake at all for any of the last restarts, and so I knew with Pato behind me, I was going to have to give it everything I possibly could. I had a great run on Kyle (Kirkwood), but because I had no overtake, he just disappeared off into the distance.
“That was a challenge for me today, but we were able to work really good, have great pit stops. I don’t know where we ended up, but the boys did a phenomenal job in pit lane again. We had good in and out laps, and it kind of all came together. We’ll take it.”
Rahal conceded some “luck” was involved, with the cautions falling at the right moments – three over the last 34 laps – that helped his #15 RLL Honda.
“I’m not going to sit here and say we weren’t a little bit lucky today but I’m not going to say this happened by luck because we had the speed and we played the strategy for exactly what happened and we weren’t the only ones,” Rahal said. “A lot of people did it because they knew.”
The Ohio native also had a front row seat to Scott McLaughlin and Will Power going at it for third, resulting in contact that knocked them both from contention with 21 laps to go; he compared the bout to boxing legend Mike Tyson. Additionally, he noted rookie teammate Mick Schumacher’s battle with David Malukas, also for third, that ended with both stuffed in the Turn 5 tire barriers on Lap 73.
“We were able to keep it clean at the end,” Rahal said. “You had Power and McLaughlin going 10 rounds with Tyson out there with each other and finally got each other, and Mick and Malukas and everything else, so you just had to keep yourself somewhat clean of all that, and we were able to do that.”
The outing at the 1.645-mile, nine-turn temporary street course marks Rahal’s third podium in eight races this season, and it was bolstered by teammate Louis Foster getting a seventh-place result.
With that, Rahal can feel RLL getting closer to where it wants to be.
“Yeah, I mean, we’re getting there,” Rahal said. “We’re getting there. I tried some stuff today. I ran some things on the car that were development sets of dampers. I was different than the other boys on purpose to kind of take one for the team, good or bad, to see what the tire degradation on my car would be like compared to theirs, try to improve our street course package.
“So it’s great to see both cars run up front, and it’s a real bummer for Mick because honestly he was in the catbird seat to have a great result today. I don’t know if he got in a little too deep into 3 or 4 and hit the fence, but I feel for him because he needs all the laps he can get, and I was bummed for him for sure.”
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