Rahal Letterman Lanigan making a huge turnaround at IMS

Qualifying for the Sonsio Grand Prix gave the IndyCar Series field its first look at the full potential of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Graham Rahal secured second, rookie teammate Louis Foster captured third, and teammate Devlin DeFrancesco claimed fifth as all three RLL drivers stormed inside the Firestone Fast Six.

“I didn’t think we were going to be on the front row; I didn’t think we were really competing for that,” Rahal said. “There were others that had new reds, too, but what a lap. In the Fast Six, we were just able to put it together. The balance was really consistent and matched my best of the whole day. It feels great for this entire team – everyone on the Nos. 15, 30 and 45 teams. We needed this; we expect to be good at the Indy road course race but to see it come together and have three cars in the top five is amazing. It feels awesome for our team.”

Outside of Foster’s increasingly impressive performances in qualifying, there hasn’t been much to celebrate this season as Rahal, holding 16th in the Drivers’ championship, has been its best performer in the races. Foster in 25th and DeFrancesco in 26th have only known the harsher end of the results sheets in 2025, which makes the possibilities of starting towards the front of Saturday’s 85-lap race a perfect place to turn their seasons around.

“I’m hugely happy with a fifth-place start; mainly on the execution side,” DeFrancesco said. “I feel our performance on the No. 30 car has been good. This is where I think our pace has been at certain rounds, especially at Barber last weekend. This is good redemption from Barber. We all sat down and spoke about execution. Hugely happy about today and now on to tomorrow and making sure we control the tire degradation, have good pit stops and run good in and out laps and making sure we get some good points tomorrow for the team.”