Team leaves Rahal frustrated

Graham Rahal was left frustrated by team

Chris Jones/IRL

Graham Rahal was left frustrated by his Newman/Haas/Lanigan team after failing to make the field for the Indianapolis 500 on the first day of qualifying.

The American was bumped out of the field by Hideki Mutoh late in the day.

Although Rahal lined up for a second qualifying attempt, the team were not ready to go out because it had failed to bring enough tires with them from the garage area.

"It's a shame. I really would have liked to be in today," he said. "I was ready to go because I thought we had new tires on the thing. I was excited to go out, and Tomas Scheckter lowered the bump speed so much that I think we could have made it.

"When I pulled up, I said, 'Guys, we need to have tires ready just in case.' Didn't happen. They said there would be no way to get down to the front of the line, and then everyone else was like, 'We're pulling, we're pulling' so I started to get ready and go.

"They should have told me before I got my helmet on. They waited until I got ready and they were like, 'Oh well by the way, we don't have tires.' They said they didn't think we were going to make it, so we didn't bring tires, and that is my point. You need to be prepared.

"I see everyone pulling out and I'm thinking, 'Oh, man, I'm next!' I'm jumping in the car, and they tell me they don't have tires so we're not going to run.

"It makes me mad because I really feel like we could have made it. It's like shooting yourself in the foot. You need to be prepared for any situation even if it doesn't look realistic that it can happen. You need to be there. You need to have your stuff there and you need to be ready to go, and we weren't.

"That's just something I don't understand. These guys are always prepared for any situation, and I just do not understand why in this type of situation, you wouldn't just be prepared just in case."