DETROIT — Instead of fighting for 12th place at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix, Graham Rahal was facing the inside wall of the hairpin after contact with Kyffin Simpson sent the Ohio native spinning on the race’s 39th lap and dropping down to 23rd place.
When the checkered flag flew over Alex Palou‘s winning effort, Rahal was third, 5.1803 seconds behind for his third podium finish of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season.
Rahal was battling with Marcus Ericsson for 12th place when Simpson hit the rear of Rahal’s car as the trio was braking for the Turn 3 hairpin. Simpson received a drive-through penalty for the contact.
“I’ve always had a lot of respect for Kyff, but I was pissed,” Rahal said after the race. “I’m not going to lie because it was completely unnecessary, particularly at that stage in the race. Completely unnecessary.
“When you see two guys battling like Ericsson and I were, there’s no reason for the third man in to be the guy that causes the problem. I mean, zero reason for it.
“You’ve got to race with a little more clear mind, and that’s what really upset me, because we all know that results — things like that don’t help any positive result.
“But yeah, like I said, I’ve always had a lot of respect for Kyff, but it bothered me today because we were so strong, and I just expected to… I treat everybody with respect on track, and I didn’t hit a single person today. Every pass I made was clean. Every battle I was in, clean. I expect the same in return. Most guys do that. [Kyle] Kirkwood and myself, zero… never a close moment. Pato [O’Ward] and myself, clean, no problem. I was just very disappointed in the move. That’s what it comes down to.”
The No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda started 12th and was running around that position group before the first pit stop sequence began. After pitting for the first time on the race’s 37th lap, Rahal blended out in 13th behind Ericsson.
After the contact dropped Rahal down the running order, race strategist Brian Barnhart brought Rahal in under caution. Rahal had started the race on Firestone’s black-sidewalled Primary compound tires but switched to the softer red sidewall alternate compound tires at his first pit stop.
Because of the rule mandating the use of two sets of Firestone’s alternate compound tires for street circuits, Barnhart brought Rahal to pit road on Lap 41 for a second set of alternate tires. That meant that Rahal could end the race on the preferred primary compound tires, as the red Alternates would not last for the rest of the race with his final pit stop.
The second part of the strategy was that the team wanted Rahal to pit early for his final pit stop and gamble that the amount of yellow-flag laps for the rest of the race would be enough to keep their car near the front until the end.
The strategy started to play out with Rahal stopping on lap 62 to begin the last sequence of pit stops. Four laps later, race control called for a full-course yellow for the incident between Rinus VeeKay and Santino Ferrucci.
Because of this yellow, 16 of the race’s top 21 cars pitted, and that vaulted Rahal up to fifth. After Race Control assessed a drive-through penalty to second-place runner Alexander Rossi for taking service in a closed pit when the yellow came out, Rahal was effectively running fourth.
Two laps after the restart, Kirkwood got around Rahal, dropping him one position. Less than 30 seconds later, Mick Schumacher and David Malukas had contact while battling for third place. Because the pair went into the turn 5 runoff, that moved Rahal up two more positions to fourth place, which would become third after Rossi served his penalty.
Two more full-course yellows played into Rahal’s hands as he was able to defend his position from O’Ward, who finished fourth, and Christian Lundgaard, who finished fifth.
“As much as you want everything to go smooth, this is a race that I think you’re often predicting issues,” Rahal said. “And we knew that the last stop we wanted to be on the early side of the window, no matter what, and bank on yellows. Bank on that Honda fuel mileage, number one, but number two, on the yellows. Both came through for us today, so we’ll take it.”
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.