INDIANAPOLIS — Graham Rahal struggled to find the speed that will potentially put him into the starting lineup for the 108th Indianapolis 500 during the Sunday practice session for Last Chance Qualifying.
It’s the second year in a row that the Indianapolis 500 veteran has found himself in this position. He is one of four drivers that will fight for the final three positions in the last row later Sunday at IMS.
Four drivers practiced Sunday in the session set aside for Last Chance Qualifying drivers.
Katherine Legge of Dale Coyne Racing with RWR was the fastest at 231.304 miles per hour in the No. 51 Honda. Marcus Ericsson, who won the Indianapolis 500 two years ago for Chip Ganassi Racing, was second at 230.877 mph in the No. 28 Honda for Andretti Global.
Rahal was next at 230.038 mph in the No. 15 Honda for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
Rahal believes he found an issue with the car during his final practice run around the 2.5-mile oval on Sunday on the right rear of the Honda.
“We made a mistake and we’re very lucky that I caught it, because had I continued to push, we probably would never have a race car right now,” Rahal said. “We’ll make sure that we’re good in that regard. Obviously, we lost more speed today again. We found some good speed on that last run though.
“The third lap was actually trending up I think 230.1 (mph) or something like that. It’s not enough speed for Katherine or Marcus.
“We think we found some issues with the lasers on the car that are misleading and put us out of a zone that is inefficient. It would be worth doing another step, but we don’t have time for another run.
“We just got to put four good ones in and see if we can keep it consistent.”
Rahal also indicated the lasers that measure the settings on the car on the setup pad and in the race, car appear to be inaccurate.
“We changed the attitude of the car, and it became way more consistent,” Rahal said. “We were just too low and have found a better zone.
“These are days you won’t want to be a part of.”
Last year, Rahal was the only driver who missed the race through qualifications when he was bumped out by his then-teammate Jack Harvey.
Rahal later replaced injured driver Stefan Wilson after he was involved in a crash in practice with Legge.
“Certainly, there is a calm about you because sadly you have been through this before,” Rahal said. “We shouldn’t be in this position for one year, let alone two.
“Hopefully, we can right the ship. The mechanical drag coefficient of the car has gotten considerably worse since Thursday so something internally in the car is binding up. It’s hard to determine what item that is.
“You can change uprights, you can change gear boxes, you can kind of go on and on and on. We need to make the most of today and if we can get into the race, address it during the week.
“Right now, it’s a little hard to determine what is going on.”
Rookie driver Nolan Siegel was the slowest at 229.337 mph in the No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda.
Siegel, the only driver in the field that also competes in the Indy NXT series, got an extra voice in his ear for advice on Sunday.
“Tony Kanaan is helping me out for the day to see if he can find something, but right now we aren’t there on speed,” Siegel said. “Whether it is driving wise of car wise, he had a lot of knowledge, and we are grateful to have him here to help us out.”