SEBRING, Fla. (February 3, 2015) – Graham Rahal, 26, completed his first test day of 2015 today at Sebring International Raceway in preparation for the upcoming Verizon IndyCar Series season. He ran a total of 121 laps around the 1.65-mile short course in the No. 15 Dallara-Honda-Firestone entry and was encouraged with the end result.
“It felt great to be back on track in an Indy car,” said Rahal. “And it was great to work with all of the guys again. What we saw today is more proof that the changes that were made on the personnel side of things proved to be great moves as everyone worked well together. (Race engineer) Eddie (Jones) and Martin (Pare) worked very closely as did Derek (Davidson, crew chief), Donny (Stewart, chief mechanic) and all the guys so I take a lot of positives away from today. Sebring is always tricky, you have to decide whether you want to tune for a street course or tune for Sebring and we were focused on St. Pete. Our lap times were respectable so all in all it’s pretty exciting for me.”
“We came here with a fixed plan of certain things we wanted to test and were able to achieve that through the day,” said race engineer Eddie Jones. “It was a very productive day from a data-gathering standpoint. We weren’t looking for the ultimate lap time at this race track. Now our focus changes to NOLA which is of course new to everyone in the IndyCar Series. The layout looks challenging and we believe we have the basis for a very good setup there so we’re keen to get on track.”
“I’m looking forward to checking out the changes to NOLA since seeing it last May during an Indy 500 media day,” added Rahal about the team’s test at NOLA Motorsports ParkFebruary 10-11. “That test will give us another opportunity to truly build on our setup in road course trim which is something we need to improve on. We had a solid base coming off of Sonoma and Mid-Ohio but it’s good to keep improving. I’m sure there is a lot of work to be done and I’m excited to get back in the car. It felt nice to knock off a little rust. My elbows are sore from banging around in the car but and I’m looking forward to getting back in and testing at NOLA.”
The 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series season begins with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 29. For more information, log on to www.rahal.com,www.grahamrahal.com or www.indycar.com
– RLL –
