Rahal blames points pressure after Bourdais crash

"We're all hanging it out, we all are," an animated Rahal told RACER. "We're risking serious injury already, and then you see an accident like that. You know why they're pushing so hard? Number one, they want to be the fastest. That's a fact. But number two, because there's points, and it's too much. It pushes everybody over the top. We don't ... to be on pole at Indy, to start on the front row, already means enough. I don't need 48 points to make me feel good about starting first, okay?

"And in fact, I guarantee you most of these guys on the front row are gonna be so elated they're not even gonna think about the points side of it. And the rest of us are sitting here busting our ass to try to ... it makes no sense. It shouldn't affect the championship at all.

"And now, he goes out there, he's risking it, he balls that thing up, writes the car off, [$300,000] plus, you're gonna tell me that's worth points? No.

"And then the engineers say to us as drivers, you gotta drive it more loose, you gotta drive it more loose, and it's like, I'm already hanging on and you're telling me – in my lap, Turn 2 was [scary] – and I don't know what you want me to do."