An early pit stop was all that Graham Rahal needed to put him onto an alternate strategy, and he parlayed that into a fourth-place finish in Sunday’s (Aug. 10) BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland for the NTT IndyCar Series at Portland International Raceway.
“It feels really good, it was nice to be there, nice to have the pace and obviously got the strategy right,” Rahal said.
“But when we needed to run, we could run, and just very proud of these guys, a tremendous effort all along. It’s really rewarding, you see the smiles, these guys area going to go home tonight, it’s going to be a late flight and everything but they’re going to go home with a smile on their face and a lot of energy and a lot of excitement and that’s what we need going into the last two [races].”
After starting 22nd, Rahal was up to 21st at the end of the first lap. An early caution gave the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team the chance to put the No. 15 Honda onto an alternate strategy after Santino Ferrucci spun and hit the wall exiting turn 12.
By pitting early, Rahal’s team was able to ditch Firestone’s Primary compound tires for the Alternate compound tires that give more grip at the expense of a lower lifespan, in theory.
However, the alternate compound tires were the preferred tire, and Rahal had three new sets of the tires remaining after his first round elimination in Saturday’s qualifying.
The race’s third full-course yellow for Conor Daly‘s contact with Christian Rasmussen on lap 15 gave 13 teams the chance to pit under yellow, with the majority of them also starting on the primary tires. By staying out, Rahal was able to jump up to fifth place for the restart.
As eventual race winner Will Power, Alex Palou, Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden pulled onto pit road to make their first pit stops, Rahal then advanced to lead four laps before making his second pit stop on lap 40.
Rahal managed to leapfrog McLaughlin in that pit cycle to move up to fourth place where he would remain for much of the rest of the race, but Christian Lundgaard replaced Newgarden in the top three after the No. 2 driver had a slow second pit stop.
Rahal would end up leading 10 laps as the former Portland polesitter finished a comfortable fourth behind Power, Lundgaard and Palou while Alexander Rossi rounded out the top five.
Portland marked Rahal’s first top-five finish since 2023 when the Ohio native finished second at the IMS road course. Rahal has had good runs at Portland in the last few years and even had good races back to his career beginnings.
“On Sundays I haven’t had as much [pace] as we would’ve liked, so this was a good change of pace,” Rahal said. “I just like this place. I like the vibe; the driver can make a big difference here. Obviously, you’ve still got to have a great car underneath you, but I don’t know, it’s a great place for me.
“You can go back to Star Mazda, I think I had my first win in Star Mazda… it was my first win in Star Mazda, and in Formula Atlantic I should’ve won here, so this place, for whatever reason, we’ve clicked here since the start.”
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.