Q&A with RLL team at Indy 500

From left, Lanigan, Servia, Rahal and Rahal

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Bobby Rahal
Mike Lanigan
Graham Rahal
Oriol Servia

MODERATOR: Folks, this is an annual appearance really of Rahal Lanigan Letterman Racing. Always great to see you. Bobby, the 1986 winner; Graham, who's coming on a tremendous roll of a couple of runner-up finishes. Always good to see Oriol Servia back with us, and Mike who has a great passion obviously for the Indianapolis 500.

Bobby, your team comes in with really great momentum and Graham it's not just the finishes, it's the way he's come up through the field, I think that's been impressive for all of us.

BOBBY RAHAL: Well, obviously, we're all very pleased. It's all about, you know, trying to put together the pieces to create a team that is in harmony and everybody is working together. I think we've finally achieved that. Certainly the relationship that Graham has with Eddie Jones and Martin Pare and Mike Talbot, Martin and Mike came into the team this year. Of course Martin worked with Graham, was his engineer at Newman/Haas Lanigan and also at Ganassi. So Martin brings a lot of insight and value to us on the whole ride — vehicle dynamic side of the equation.

And it's just, you know, teams — it's all clicking. And it's fun to watch. It's fun to — I've always said Graham is a very good racer because any race he starts he usually goes forward. I can probably count on one hand the number of times he's lost positions over the years. More often than not it's — you know, last year at St. Pete it was ten positions on the first lap, and of course this last week it was 17th to 5th on the first lap. Obviously had some help in doing that, but he also passed Hildebrand. I think it was in Turn Two. In any event, we give Graham the car, which we're doing now, and then we've done this year. Some of the results haven't quite shown up, but the pace during the race has shown up. And he's going to run up front. So it's very gratifying, I think, for me and Mike and Dave to see this team doing what it's doing. A lot of people said, well, a single-car team can't prevail or be competitive against the big multi-car teams and I think we're proving that wrong. The season is not over yet by any means. But I think a really finely focused single-car effort can be competitive. Certainly all my championships were single-car teams, and in Indy it was a single-car team. It can be done and we're working hard to make that level of competitiveness a constant throughout the season.

MODERATOR: Mike, your story is one that we hear often in Indianapolis. Someone comes to the race, they become enchanted with the race as a fan, as an observer, et cetera, and all of a sudden you're in an ownership capacity, and with each and every turn it seems like you're even in a little bit stronger than that. Talk about your evolution and being involved with this team and your thoughts about the year thus far.

LANIGAN: Well, this is my 41st race in a row. I know I don't look that old, but this is my 41st. What happened 41 years ago, I was living down the street here in an apartment, and I think it was Pole Day and I had the window open in the apartment and I heard this engine sound. I had to check it out. That was the beginning of the disease.

As far as our team this year, I mean, like Bobby said, everything is coming together. We're acting one as one, driver, team, engineer. And pit stops have been great. It's tough to compete against four and five-car teams. But we're the one-car team that can, and that's my philosophy this year. You know, we've got a great driver, great leadership under Bob, and I'm very excited about a week from Sunday and hopefully we'll continue the trend being the underdog and succeeding.

The remarkable thing I've found is not only are we knocking on the door, if you look at the last two races, we lost the last two races by a total of four seconds. That's pretty amazing.

But I'm proud of our team, proud of Graham. I'm very proud of Oriol coming on board again. He's a great veteran, great driver. And really brings a lot to the two-car effort that we need to be successful a week from Sunday. So let's see what happens.

MODERATOR: You make a good point, and we'll turn to Oriol now.

Oriol, obviously, Bob Rahal and a variety of people have watched you perform for years, and you have performed so much like a professional race driver coming into a situation, sorting a car out and making it go forward. Talk about your opportunity with this team and also your relationship working with Graham.

ORIOL SERVIA: Yeah, it is actually — hello, everybody — my third time with the team and my fourth actually teaming up with Graham because we did at Newman/Haas for a little bit.

Last year we had four or five races together, and I just didn't like it. I said, "Just get your act together, people, and bring me back when you're winning." (Laughter)

That's what they've been working on for a year, and they've been sorting out everything. I've landed in a much better situation than last year. It's not only that they're clicking, they're working really hard and the results show on track and it is now just no, you know, not casual effect. They are really working very hard, staying late in the garages every day and making things happen. So for me it's a perfect scenario to landing in a place where I know all the players. I know the owners, the engineers, the teammate, and it's another chapter of the book we've been writing together. Of course it's great to come to a team that they've just come from almost winning the last two races, and the energy in the garages is the right one. We all have one aim, which is to win on the 24th. And hopefully it's going to be between the two of us.

But as always, so far we've been working really well. The speed is there. We feel very comfortable with our race work thus far. So we'll see Fast Friday and hopefully the weather will let us see what speeds the Honda can pull today, but I'm very encouraged.

MODERATOR: Graham, you come into racing with some opportunities, obviously with the foundation laid down by your father. But with that being an American driver at Indianapolis, a famous name, there's a lot of expectations and pressure that come with that. You heard whispers, perhaps, that you weren't the guy that had it. Do you feel like you've been answering those questions, and how in 2015?

GRAHAM RAHAL: To be honest with you, obviously you're always going to hear those names. Anybody with my name — Marco has heard it; a lot of people have. I think at the end of the day a lot of people don't understand, you know, the full circumstances that you've been up against. Last year, unfortunately, we just didn't have a very cohesive team, and I think we recognized that. It was a difficult year for me, probably the most trying year of my career. Really I think that's what led to us all kind of reenergize, refocus for this year. This was clearly going to be an important year for me and my career. I've always had confidence in myself, obviously certain years more than others. I've never doubted that guys like Pagenaud is winning races and Hinchcliffe and Power and Dixon, and I've always felt like I could compete with them. While the results maybe haven't reflected as many wins as those guys have, I knew from my past and racing wheel to wheel with them on Race Day, as Dad says, I feel like I could be right there with them.

This year I think we're finally getting to that point. I think we've shown in the last couple of races that we can be up there. You know, you get a good car underneath you, you get a team that's full of confidence. And it's not just the driver, obviously. The team has a huge effect. I mean, would Scott Dixon be as successful without Target Chip Ganassi Racing behind him? Probably not. And same with Helio. The team really elevates what the driver is.

I think in our case the team is really clicking. I think the guys, you know, you look at the Grand Prix last week, we had the fastest pit stops and that speaks volumes about — and one of our guys on the inside front, Dillon, it was his first race ever doing pit stops, and he got thrown in the deep end with fighting with the likes of the Penske boys, and so on.

I think everything is just working out. I feel like I can compete here and we've proven that, it's just a matter of working hard and getting everybody excited. I think we can be contenders in every weekend. We've proven in points this year, we're tied for fourth, just a few points out of third, and we're not there by luck. Had St. Pete gone the way it should have, we'd be third in points right now. If you look at it from that standpoint, I think this team is riding high and, as Dad said, it's early in the year still. But all signs are pointing in the right direction.

MODERATOR: For a big race like Indianapolis, the biggest of them all, we've talked about the success of the one-car team, but is it good to have a guy like Oriol also that you can communicate with what's happening day in and day out?

GRAHAM RAHAL: Well, you know, when Dad started mentioning he was going to run a second car, I told him right away. I said the only guy I would talk to is Oriol. That's because I'm his manager, and I get a cut for that. (Laughter)

But anyway — no, but as Oriol said, we worked together at Newman/Haas/Lanigan. And in 2009 when Oriol came over, our car had been pretty strong on the McDonald side and on the other side was Dornbos, and they had struggled bad. And Oriol came in and instantly turned that side of the team around. I saw what a team player he was and the effect he could have on the whole package. I think we went to Motegi, third and fourth, had a great run there, had a great finish to the season. And then Oriol drove a few years back and last year, same thing, he came in and worked with us at the beginning of the season, did a bunch of races.

You could see that even though we were struggling, you know, the power that he had was very beneficial to the team. I've never met anybody in my time that's such a team player, somebody that will help, you know, the overall group as much as Oriol does. And I've driven with a lot of different drivers. So I felt that was something at this point that we needed. As Dad and Mike have said, we decided this year we'd focus on a single car. But if you were going to add a second car, you can do nothing to take away from that one car, particularly with the way that everything has gone.

I think as shown so far here at the Speedway, Oriol has really helped out. I think our race cars are better than — far better than last year. I think truthfully it's the best race car I've had here since probably 2012 or something.

So pretty excited about what the whole package has.

MODERATOR: Should be. We can open it up to a few questions.

Q: Would you guys talk about how you feel how the Hondas have the power to compete with the big Chevies here?

MODERATOR: We're going to use a microphone.

SERVIA: I think really we'll see what speed we have in qualifying. We've been working on different times and different setups. It seems like Chevy, they came with two packages, one for qualifying specific — we all want to qualify well, but I've been in the front row and I haven't won this thing. The important thing is the race. And I think what Honda, not only focused this year but every year — sometimes they're a little weaker in some other racetracks, but they show up with their best tricks at the 500 on Race Day. So that's when I think you'll see us shine.

GRAHAM RAHAL: I think as Oriol said, I think from what we've seen so far, I think it's going to be hard to out-qualify them, but I think on Race Day we should be pretty good. And it's important for us. I talk about our team and where we are on points; they give away points for qualifying here now. So we need to qualify. We're in there in points, so we need to do everything well.

But I think our race cars are pretty good. So as Oriol just mentioned, he started on the front row, I started fourth here in 2009, didn't finish the race. I started 29th here and finished third. So it really doesn't matter.

Q: Bobby, can you describe the differences of being a car owner, just a driver, and the driver is your son, how things change.

BOBBY RAHAL: Being the driver, that's by far the best seat in the house because you're doing what you love and — especially here at Indianapolis. It's such a thrill to be a participant at the level of a driver being part of a history that is written every year. So being a driver is definitely the way to go.

Being an owner is nowhere near as satisfying. It's gratifying in many ways when you see the team do well. And this year in particular for me, you know, as many of you know, I've kind of stepped out of the pits and it's because I really feel that we have great people in the team and I have to just — a good leader is one who gets out of the way and let those folks who have come together do their job and they're doing a fantastic job. So for me it's a little odd to be — not being so involved. But the results are showing that it's certainly the better way to go. If you have your son as the driver, you know, what are you going to say? What son listens to their father?

No, it's been very gratifying to have Graham with us, and I'm very proud of him. You know, the job he's — last year was a very difficult year and yet, as I said, when we gave him a great car as we saw in Houston, as we saw in Detroit, he's right there. There's nothing more I love doing than watching him drive a race car and driving ours makes it even better. So it's been really gratifying for me this year to see how well the boys are doing. And to have Oriol back with us, as Graham said, I don't think there was much thought about who we should have in our second car. I mean, it was like Oriol. And I'm, you know, I think tomorrow or Saturday or Sunday, it will be interesting to see where we all line up; but come Race Day, I think we're going to be pretty strong, and that makes me pretty excited.

Q: Two questions, one for Oriol, one for Bobby. Oriol, the difference from last year, now you have the aero package. Did you feel any significant difference setting the car up driving? And one question for Bobby, you're retired, you're not driving; nevertheless, you're not curious to drive the car yourself to know how the car is feeling or how it performs to other cars you have driven?

BOBBY RAHAL: No, I really haven't had any interest in it. I think I kind of crossed that bridge in 1998 when I got out — when I retired as a driver. I've never really been, you know, motivated to hop in the car and take it for a spin, so to speak. (Laughter)

Probably, I literally would spin it. I don't know. They're different cars. It's nice for me, I can just remember what it used to be like and, of course, I tell everybody those were the days. We didn't have drink bottles and HANS devices. And we had gear shifts, H pattern. You actually had to know what gear you were in, you didn't have a little thing up there to tell you what gear you were in. I like to give these guys a lot of grief. But no, I'm quite happy right where I'm at.

SERVIA: And you had 900 horsepower.

BOBBY RAHAL: And we had 900 horsepower, yeah.

SERVIA: In my case, the car actually felt different from the amount of improvement the team have made, the amount of grip on the track than anything else. It feels much, much better than last year. The aero package I find they have changed a little bit the way we race with each other. Like the cars seem to have less of a tow effect, so it may be a little more difficult to overtake each other. But we'll see on Race Day.

We always say it's going to be tough and, like three years ago, we had the most lead changes ever which none of us expected. So I guess we're going to have to wait and see.

Q: Bobby, this question is for you. When you were driver out here, it seemed like the speed record came down every year for a lot of years. We haven't seen it come down in, like, 20 years. With the safety improvements, with the safety catching up with the speed, is that something you see on the horizon in the next couple years? Do you think we know?

BOBBY RAHAL: You know, I don't know if breaking the speed record is — I mean, look at Daytona, they're going slower, they've been slower at Daytona than — in the mid '80s is when they were going over 200 and they haven't touched that. I think it was 210, something like that. I'm not sure that's so important. To me it's the quality of the race. That's the important part. Now would people be interested if we were running around here at 200? Probably not.

For me as the owner, as you go up in speed, the risk goes up. Certainly things like the safer wall have made racing an ovals much, much safer than it was in my era. But as we've seen, you know, it still carries a certain degree of risk out there and the faster you go, the higher that degree becomes, the greater degree that becomes.

So for me personally, you know — and those were exciting days, to be sure. But I don't know. Where do you stop? Is it 240? Is it 245? I'm not sure that's — I think at some point in time, you know, it's all about the race and not about qualifying or the speed record or what have you.

Q: My question is for Bobby as well. Bobby, this is the 20-year anniversary of that '95 race which was kind of a crazy race for a lot of reasons. I went back and watched the ABC broadcast the other day and you were very critical about some things after the race, and I realize that's just moments after the race. In hindsight, what are your memories about that day, and did some good come out of it and maybe some rule changes or something that was good for racing in the long run?

BOBBY RAHAL: Well, the only thing I really remember is it was a very tough race. That was when Firestone came into the fray for the first year and really had the dominant tire that day, and yet we all kind of hung in there. I remember there was a lot of marbles on the track and, man, it was so intense, the concentration to stay off of them. Because that's what happened to Scott Pruett, he got up into them when he was leading and boom, he was in the wall. I think it happened to somebody else, Jimmy Vasser I think it was, the same thing. It was really a one-lane racetrack. And then, of course, Scott Goodyear passing the Pace Car when he had the race won clearly and Villeneuve coming from two laps down, my team, we had two cars, me and Raul, two of us in the top four with about 15 laps to go and then I got penalized for speeding in the pits which I didn't agree with which I think kept us from winning the race. But it was a hard race and, of course, that was our last race here. Of course we didn't know that at the time because the split would be announced shortly thereafter, I think.

But, yeah, it was a hard, tough race. It was a lot of up and down during the course of that race. But it was a nice — ended up third, so I guess you could say it was a pretty good day for us.

Q: This is for Graham and Oriol. You're both veterans of this oval. Everyone is talking about the kits, but talk about the oval this year. Do tracks change from year to year? And what's so unique or special about this track this year? Are there special places to pass or drive, et cetera?

SERVIA: I find it changes day to day, this track. But I haven't really found many big changes compared to last year. The two little bumps, we have one bump in Turn Two and a couple in Turn Three. I find them exactly the same as last year.

GRAHAM RAHAL: I think this place is pretty consistent year to year. As Oriol said, what's so difficult about this track, everybody that looks at this place, oh, it's four corners, they all look the same, should be easy. But you find like the bump entrance to Turn Two, you've got to be easy with your hands, easy to spin it. You've got a bump at the exit of Three that's pretty big, turn Four. It's one of those places it's so hard to get right. It is so difficult to — I think far harder than any other oval to get all the corners to put an entire lap together. And you'd think that sounds easy, but there are so many little nuances around this place and, of course, you bring the wind into play. That's what we've struggled with this week. One day the wind is sailing from the west, the next it's from the east, it's like you never know which way you're going. It changes the way these race cars are handling from corner to corner; it's extreme. So you have to be at the top of your game at all times. At the same time you have to try to make your race car good enough to handle those conditions. You never know from a week — just over a week from now, what are we going to get?

But while this place looks fairly simple if you're just looking at a track map, it is so difficult. But I think that's what makes it rewarding when you do put a good lap in there, it's pretty awesome.

MODERATOR: We've got time for one more if anyone has got one.

I don't see anybody.

Q: Bobby, just one quick follow-up to that. A couple of the other drivers I talked to said they heard rumors about a possible friction, maybe a possible split, but their sense was they're going to get it worked out, it doesn't make sense. When you left here that May, were you concerned at all, "This might be my last time here for a while," or what was kind of your thoughts?

BOBBY RAHAL: I think we all thought we would be coming back here. I don't think anybody thought, as you say, it didn't make any sense, did it? Unfortunately, that was it for me. Three years later, I retired, and so that was that. And I feel bad for guys, you know. There's a lot like Zanardi and a lot of really good guys who never really got the chance to race here, and that was a shame, I think. I mean Montoya came over and won, but there were a lot of guys up until recently, Bourdais wasn't here and there were a lot of good guys, so it was a shame.

But no, when we left that day in '95, we thought all would be sorted out and we'd be back.

MODERATOR: Are we good?

BOBBY RAHAL: And thankfully here we are. Thankfully I did get back. And I will say this, because you hear these people say, oh, well, the racing isn't as good as it was in the CART days. That's nonsense. I think it's probably deeper, the level of competition is deeper, tougher, more intense. You look at qualifying, these guys — rows are being separated by hundredths of a second, tenths of a second. It was never that way in CART. You've got people like Graham and Dixon and Dario when he was driving, you know, and these are damn good drivers.

MODERATOR: Thank you very much for coming in as always, and best of luck.