INDIANAPOLIS — It was almost like déjà vu for the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team during Saturday's Indianapolis 500 first round qualifying.
Graham Rahal's No. 15 could not find the speed necessary to keep him out of the bottom four, meaning for the second straight year, he is at risk of being bumped out of the Indianapolis 500.
For Graham Rahal, it will be his second time in the "Last Row Shootout." The 35-year-old second-generation driver struggled for speed during last year's "500," and was bumped from the field. He did end up starting the race for the injured Stefan Wilson, but the DNQ still marked a low point for him and the team.
"All winter the boys have worked awfully hard," said Rahal to NBC Sports after the race. "These guys thrashed to get these cars ready for Indy just with all the things we had done [since last year], but unfortunately, you guys can see it."
Rahal made four additional attempts Saturday to get his No. 15 Honda into the top-30 and was even the last car to make a qualifying attempt, but still could not seem to find speed over 230 mph.
For comparison, provisional pole-winner Will Power posted an average speed of 233.758 mph over four laps.
"That last run was a little too neutral for my liking," said Rahal. "But you hang on for a lap and see what it does, I came out of Turn 2 and it was down on my best lap, I knew it was slow. When a car doesn't wanna pull a gear, there's just not much you can do."
Pietro Fittipaldi struggled as well and just barely clinched his second career Indy 500 start. Christian Lundgaard's No. 45 was locked-in to the Indy 500 by virtue of his 231.465 mph qualifying average, but the Dane was only quick enough to be provisionally 28th out of a 33-car field.
The lone positive of RLL's Saturday was one-off racer and two-time "500" winner Takuma Sato's top-12 run. Sato looked like the anomaly of the group, setting a four-lap average speed of 232.473, which was roughly a full mile an hour faster than teammate Lundgaard.
Sato looked almost as though he was driving a different car. The 47-year-old Japanese ex-Formula 1 racer has scaled down to a part-time schedule recently, but only needed two attempts to get his No. 75 Honda into the Fast 12.
