INDYCAR: Rahal signs Servia for 500, maybe more

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing will field an entry for Oriol Servia in the 2017 Indianapolis 500 with the hope of adding more races during the season, the team announced Tuesday. Servia competed for the team in the 2009, 2014, 2015 Indy 500s and three additional races in 2014.

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"We've always said we'd only look at doing a second car if it added something beneficial to the entire team; Oriol is certainly someone who can do that. It's just a matter of putting it all together, but we're not there yet."

Servia said he couldn't be more excited to reunite with team owners Bobby Rahal, Mi-Jack co-owner Mike Lanigan and "my second father" David Letterman.

"We've done it before and had some success but both the team and myself are only doing this because we feel we can contend for the win together," Servia said. "Since Day 1 in 2009, working with Graham as a teammate has been great and now at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, it just feels like a family. The team has been the best Honda entry the past two years and the objective would be to continue to make the team even better in order to fight the multi car teams at Indy and also hopefully for the entire season. We feel that together we can do that.

"We plan to go for the win at the Indy 500 and at as many other races as we can."

The 2017 race will be Servia's ninth 500 run. His best finish overall is fourth in 2012 with Dreyer & Reinbold and best start is third in 2011 with Newman/Haas Racing.

Over the past two seasons Servia's name has been at the top of the list when a stand-in was needed. He drove to an emotional 12th-place finish at the 2015 season finale while driving Justin Wilson's Andretti Autosport entry, and he got a last-minute call to stand in for Will Power to open the 2016 season at St. Pete for Team Penske. He qualified 10th and finished 12th for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports in the 100th Indy 500.