After taking Edmonton off, Graham Rahal’s returning to IZOD IndyCar Series action this weekend as his six-race run with Newman/Haas Racing continues at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
So far, Rahal’s doing well on his home track, which sits roughly an hour to the north of his hometown of New Albany, Ohio. His No. 02 National Tire and Battery machine topped the charts in opening practice for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 (Sun., 2:30 p.m. ET, Versus) with a lap at 68.3061 seconds/119.005 m.p.h., besting a pair of Team Penske drivers in IndyCar points leader Will Power (68.3301/118.964) and the recently disciplined Helio Castroneves (68.3779/118.881).
“The thing that is obvious to me is that it is really close and very competitive,” said Rahal of the session that saw the top 22 drivers within one second of each other. “At one point, I was 10th, but only a tenth off. But I really wanted to be fastest on the first day at home.
“It feels good. I am a little bit surprised, especially where we came from. I was a little bit worried. We tried a whole bunch of things and I think I had a better lap in me, but I locked up a little bit and messed up a lap. The good thing is the car is nowhere close for me. There’s a lot we need to improve on…”
Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay (68.4692/118.722) and Team Penske’s Ryan Briscoe (68.5437/118.593) rounded out the top five in the session.
As for the two drivers making their IndyCar debut this weekend — America’s J.R. Hildebrand (No. 24, Dreyer and Reinbold Racing) and Italy’s Francesco Dracone (No. 34, Conquest Racing) — they were on opposite ends of the chart. Hildebrand was seventh-quickest with a lap of 68.6340 seconds/118.437 m.p.h., while Dracone’s best lap at 71.0931 seconds/114.340 m.p.h. was only good enough for 25th place.
Hildebrand will race in the next two events while Dracone is taking over for Mario Romancini, who ran out of sponsorship following Edmonton. Romancini is at M-O this weekend as a coach for Firestone Indy Lights driver Giancarlo Vilarinho over at Andersen Racing.
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Quotes in this article were taken from today’s Indy Racing League trackside report.
