After team's 1st win in 3 years, Bobby Rahal still wrestling with hellish May, what's next
TORONTO – For a 70-year-old man who underwent significant back surgery less than three years ago and required triple bypass surgery in June of 2022 after suffering a heart attack he wasn't aware of the prior month, Bobby Rahal has learned a thing or two about monitoring his health.
And for two weeks in May this year, the Rahal was in trouble.
The mental and emotional strains of showing up at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a four-car team that trundled around at the back all week in practice and saw Jack Harvey bounce his teammate and dear friend Graham Rahal from the field of 33 “shook us to our core.”
Having the three cars of his that did make the race finish 18th, 19th and last (33rd) “was hell.”
And after Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing registered what Rahal called an even more embarrassing performance at Detroit the week after the 500, he fired several employees, putting him in the lowest of lows.
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“I have to tell you, it was emotional for me, the hell we went through in the last six weeks,” Rahal said. “Making changes is difficult. It obviously affects people’s lives, and that’s not fun. Whenever anyone says, ‘Oh, it must be great to be the president of a company,’ well, yeah, it’s great until the minute you have to let someone go. Then, you feel like crap – whether they deserved it or not.
“The month of May took a toll on me. I wasn’t sleeping well at night. We’re here to win, not to freaking play around or just be part of (the 500). We’re here to win.”
But before Rahal can finish that thought Sunday evening, he can’t help but snatch his cell phone that won’t stop vibrating out of his pocket – because RLL and Christian Lundgaard, its 21-year-old Danish racing prodigy, did just that Sunday on the streets of Toronto.
They won. They thoroughly dominated an IndyCar field nearly half filled by the cars of Roger Penske, Chip Ganassi, Michael Andretti and McLaren Racing; teams Rahal aspires to beat on a weekly basis.
Takuma Sato’s 500 win in 2020 was a reminder to the field that this giant was sleeping, not dead. Casual conversations that month with a new sponsor turned into a full-fledged primary sponsorship deal that inspired RLL’s jump to three full-time cars and, in a way, inspired the need for a brand-new, state-of-the-art HQ in Zionsville. But not since that quirky, August day at IMS, had an RLL driver stood atop an IndyCar podium.
They’d only logged three total podiums since, all by different drivers, and none in nearly a year.
And so it’s strange, but so vehemently clear, that Rahal simply cannot live in this moment on stage with Christian Lundgaard on Sunday afternoon, after the driver of the No. 45 Honda sailed past runaway championship leader Alex Palou on Lap 62 and gapped the 2021 champ by nearly 12 seconds. To celebrate more than a little, in Rahal’s mind, presents an opportunity to let the foot off the gas. And RLL simply cannot afford such a mistake. Rahal’s certain his health can’t either.
“I’m telling you, it was so bad. … This May knocked me back a few steps. It haunted me, pained me. May was ‘hell’ for me, and that’s why we made the decisions we made. I just said after Indy, ‘We’re going to instill and initiate the Indy Recovery Plan, which we’re in the process of and which is all about looking into why we performed so poorly and fixing those issues so that next May, we’re fighting for the pole.”
Lundgaard: 'I can do certain things they can't'
Perhaps more impressive than Lundgaard putting his car on pole in the wet Saturday afternoon and then weathering the stress of various strategies cycling a dozen cars up and down throughout the afternoon was the fact that RLL was simply forgettable when they rolled off the trucks in Friday’s first practice of the weekend. So rare in IndyCar nowadays is it for a three-car team to finish 16th-, 17th- and 21st-fastest over 75 minutes on-track Friday, to find enough pace to be toasting with champagne on Sunday.
After earning a front-row start two weeks ago at Mid-Ohio, the younger Rahal cautioned against expecting he, Lundgaard and Jack Harvey to flash that same kind of qualifying (two top-6 starts) and race-pace (a pair of top-7 finishes) on the streets of Toronto – which ironically had served as a springboard for RLL’s resurgent second half of 2022.
For whatever reason, the team has struggled dearly for competitive pace and balance outside permanent road courses this year. Don’t let St. Pete – where Rahal (6th) and Lundgaard (9th) merely survived carnage that consumed half the field – fool you. RLL had finished better than 12th on a street course since. Only three of their six cumulative starts had they qualified better than 24th.
How he did it: Christian Lundgaard wins IndyCar race in Toronto, can shave his mustache
Lundgaard, however, saw reason for hope.
“I think it’s in the simplicity of things with our approach. At the end of last year, when we started performing really well, there were times where we were basically just not changing the car and just trying to understand what we had,” Lundgaard said last week. “Now that we’ve left two good weekends (at Road America and Mid-Ohio, both top-7 finishes for Lundgaard) and performed relatively good (at Toronto) a year ago, I think we have a good chance."
“For us right now, it’s all in the mentality and the way we approach things.”
For one, Lundgaard by no means lacks confidence, something that could’ve easily been lost. He came to IndyCar full-time in 2022 after running out of roadway working towards his boyhood dream of a Formula 1 ride. He thought he was joining a program on the upswing, only to find an understaffed team in disarray behind the scenes.
“This year, I’ve just been fast from the get-go,” Lundgaard said ahead of Toronto. “I think, because I’m so young and I’ve driven a lot of cars in Europe that, in my opinion, are quite difficult to drive – and I’ve also driven some easy ones – and with my F1 team experience a few years ago on the simulator, you’re just very involved. You understand the differences and how you need to drive certain cars.
“I guess that’s why on certain occasions, Graham will complain more about the car than I will because I just kind of get on with it. There’s no question that Graham is a good driver – and same for Jack – but I just think I can do certain things they can’t, just because of my previous experiences.”
Bobby Rahal: 'We're not there yet'
Rahal's never felt fully comfortable with success, even with 24 IndyCar wins to his name or three championship trophies in his study. Even now with 30 wins as a team owner, dating back to 1992.
“When I raced, I never felt confident about anything. Even if I won a race, I started thinking later that night, ‘Okay, what now? What are we going to do next weekend?’” Rahal said. “I always ran scared as a driver, and I do, frankly, still now.
“For (primary sponsor) Hy-Vee, who stood with us through thick and thin, as we win this race, they’re the biggest fans we have, and of course now, they’re going to expect this next weekend.”
Note, there is some lightheartedness in his voice, particularly when the moderator reminds Rahal that Hy-Vee -- sponsor of this weekend's doubleheader -- may now be expecting this “twice” next weekend, instead of just once. But it’s short-lived.
“I don’t want to be pessimistic for next weekend. I think we have a chance to figure into the race,” he continues, “but I don’t think you can take anything for granted.”
Mind you, Rahal notes, this victory was no fluke. In the wake of cutting some employees loose and shuffling around engineers and crew chiefs between IndyCar programs, the shop floor and his IMSA team, Rahal noted some of his team’s recent uptick in performance – particularly on Lundgaard’s No. 45 – has been because some diamonds in the rough around the Zionsville shop have been dusted off and finally been given room to grow and shine.
There’s something, too, to landing a pole, as those on the No. 45 did on the IMS road course in mid-May, weathering a so-so run to 4th-place, and growing from the meteoric highs and lows over 24 hours.
“I thought we were at a point where we needed to give some people opportunities they maybe had been wanting for a while and hadn’t gotten, and that’s contributed to this turnaround of sorts," Rahal said. "There’s just a different atmosphere, and I’ve got some great people to help us keep this going.”
As Rahal is staring on, at times burning a hole in the back of the small auditorium, Lundgaard is jokingly leaning back in his chair and pointing at his own chest. He, the ex-Alpine Academy driver who finished 7th and 12th in his two full seasons of Formula 2, proudly professes to be a team leader and top driver for a 3-time IndyCar champion driver and two-time 500-winning owner.
“Yeah, okay,” Rahal replies, playfully rolling his eyes. “God, he might become insufferable after this. We’re actually flying back on the same plane tonight, and I might have to open the door.
“I’m just not confident we’re ‘there’ yet. You look at Penske, Ganassi, McLaren and they’re consistently up in the top-10, and that’s where you have to be to win these races – top-6, really, to have a legit shot. And we’re not there yet. Maybe one car or two, but not all three, and we really need all three cars in the top-6 or 10 every race. I don’t care what kind of track it is. When we get to that point, that’s when we’ll have done our job.”
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyCar: RLL's Indy Recovery Project not done with Lundgaard's win
