McDonald’s driver Graham Rahal earned his highest finish on an oval after starting from pole but the timing of the final caution period forced him to make an extra pit stop and he finished seventh after running in the top-three the first half of the 200-lap Road Runner Turbo Indy 300 on the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway and top-five the last half. Rahal and teammate Robert Doornbos’ front row start was the first for the team since Sebastien Bourdais and Bruno Junqueira started on the front row in the 2006 Champ Car race in Milwaukee, which was won by Bourdais.
At the start of the race, Rahal held the lead for the first seven laps before he dropped to second place for the next nine. He reported to the team that he was fighting understeer in Turns 3 and 4 and they planned to make a tire pressure adjustment on the first stop. Helio Castroneves ran into the back of Vitor Meira and brought out the first of three cautions from Laps 15-20. The field utilized this caution to make their first stop and Rahal returned to the track in third place but moved into second when teammate Doornbos was penalized for hitting Rahal’s tire while leaving his pit box. Once the race resumed on Lap 21 he held second place until Lap 58 when Tony Kanaan passed him exiting Turn 4 where he still struggled with understeer. He temporarily moved back into second for one lap before his second pit stop on Lap 69 and returned to the track in fourth place after losing a position to Ryan Briscoe in the pits. He held fourth place until his next stop on Lap 99 during the caution for Raphael Matos who crashed in Turn 4. He lost two positions in the pits to Helio Castroneves and Dario Franchitti and returned to the track in sixth place. On the restart he lost one position to Ed Carpenter but not only regained that one but also passed Franchitti on the following one to run fifth. He held the position for the following 47 laps before his next stop.
The team began the countdown with 10 laps to go before his stop on when it was time for him to enter the lane to come into the pits he followed the directions given in the drivers meeting. As he was closing in on the pit entrance a car shot past him, across the race track and into the wall which brought out a caution and closed the pits. Dario Franchitti was behind him on the lane to enter the pits and lost control of his car under braking. Rahal had to enter a closed pit the next time by on Lap 153 as he was out of fuel and needed a splash to continue until the pits opened on the following lap. When they opened, he returned to the pits on Lap 154 for a full fuel load and new tires and returned to the track in ninth place. On the second lap after the restart he lost a position to Carpenter and ran in 10th place but regained ninth on Lap 172. His next target was Dan Wheldon and he closed the gap with each lap until he passed the Englishman on the high line of the track on Lap 177. It only took him seven laps to close on Hideki Mutoh before he passed him on the high line of the track on Lap 184 for seventh place. He set his sights on Marco Andretti next and temporarily closed on him but had to settle for a seventh place finish by the time the checkered flag came out on Lap 200. Dixon won the event while Castroneves finished second and Kanaan finished third. Rahal collected 27 points to move up to an eighth place rank with 72. Following are his post race comments:
“We had a pretty good start,” said Rahal. “On the first lap we pulled away. It was just Dixie (Dixon) and I moving our way forward trying to pull out a gap. I was struggling a bit in Turns 3 and 4 and that’s where I got passed the three times I was passed. Late in the race I discovered the high line and that’s how I got around everybody because me car was pretty good in three and four, up top. I need to definitely think about that earlier next time. It’s a lesson learned. Having to do the splash and go there at the end for what was to be our last stop really cost us four spots so realistically we were looking pretty good. I think we have outright speed but we just need to make sure we have it for the whole race.
(On Dario’s accident:) “I didn’t see that, I have no clue what happened. I’ll go talk to him but all of a sudden I saw out of my right rear mirror the thing just went straight and I was like ‘Whoa, what happened there?’ I signaled that I was coming into pit lane by putting two wheels over the white line and I did it right off Turn 2 and then I came back out to the white line and ducked in. I hit the braked once I ducked in pretty late – later than I have ever hit the brakes going into a pit lane. And all of a sudden I see this flash going by and straight into the fence. With the speed he was carrying he wasn’t going to make it anyway whether I was there or not.
“It was a disappointing day for the McDonald’s guys. I fell like we just can’t get any breaks in the race this year. The yellow came out right when we had to pit so we had to come into a closed pit for a splash of fuel and it cost us four spots. We just can’t get any luck and unfortunately that is what is killing our chance to finish well right now. We had a pretty solid car today but I discovered the high line late unfortunately because I think if I had discovered it a little earlier I think we would have been able to keep up front and stay in the top-three because the car was much better up there. It was a good start for us heading into the month of May. Again, now we need to figure out how to make it last over a race distance a little better. If we can do that we’ll be able to improve our finishing positions.”
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