Graham Rahal took a hard-earned and long-awaited podium result in the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park.
The Ohio native rolled off third after an impressive qualifying display Saturday on a used set of softer alternate tires. Once the green flag dropped, he was a steady frontrunner throughout the contest, holding down second-place for a majority of the race – leading one lap – and even drawing level on pace with eventual winner Alex Palou for a portion of the early running. Although a runner-up result was in play, his #15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda was passed by a surging Christian Lundgaard and relegated to third with three laps to go, where he remained through the checkered flag.
The finish at the 2.3-mile, 17-turn natural terrain road course marked Rahal’s first podium since August 12, 2023, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course – 41 races ago.
Christian Lundgaard, Arrow McLaren, Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing, Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Photo by: Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
“It’s a great reward for the guys and gals,” said Rahal, 37. “Everybody has worked so hard to be back here. Heard all the noise and BS that we get to hear all the time.
“All weekend the car was in really good shape, very, very competitive, very comfortable. The race is actually the most challenging it was. It was extremely stable. In the race, as you guys could see, I was losing the rear a lot no matter what I felt like I could do on tire degradation. That’s been our Achilles’ heel so far this year. We’ve got some work to do.
“No, I mean, I’m super happy for everybody on the #15. Great pit stops, great strategy with Brian (Barnhart). We’ll carry this momentum into the break here a little bit and get ready for Long Beach.
“It’s a good relief this early in the year to have a good result. Now our job is to go analyze and figure out why. What changes did we make to put our car so much further into the window than most other road course races and how can we take that to the GP and Indy, in particular.”
It wasn’t without some drama, though, as, after Lundgaard’s #7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet got by late, Rahal was then under threat of losing the final spot on the podium to a surging David Malukas in the #12 Team Penske Chevrolet.
“We were quicker than David all day,” Rahal said. “He did make a good charge at the end.
“I wasn’t so worried about him. I think I could have held Christian off, it’s just his strength was my weakness. Everywhere else we could pull him a little bit. I was dying in Turn 2 and 3. That was the best part of the track he had. Unfortunately, those two just didn’t blend very well.
“We did the best that we could. That’s life. He was obviously on a charge and we had done a few more laps than him on those tires. I knew it was going to be a battle till the end. That’s the way it goes.”
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