RLL beset by series of wheel and suspension failures in Detroit

In the most literal of ways, the wheels fell off Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s race at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix as all three of its cars suffered wheel or suspension problems that ruined its chances of producing quality finishes.

Devlin DeFrancesco’s No. 30 RLL Honda was the first to stumble as a rear wheel fell off the car early in the 100-lap contest, and next up, it was Graham Rahal, while running in second, who pitted, received a new set of tires and returned the next lap with a loose rear wheel.

The No. 30 placed 23rd out of the 27 drivers, completing 83 laps of the race.“

It was a very interesting day,” DeFrancesco said. “It’s just a big bummer. We had a right rear wheel issue and overall it was a difficult day. We’ll move on.”

Rahal lost three laps as repairs were affected and settled for 20th with the No.15 Honda.

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“It’s a huge shame to have a possible great day thrown away,” Rahal said. “I had the same thing in warm up, and so it leads to the question as to the cause. I'm just super disappointed given the potential result. Who knows where you finish, but ultimately, we had the pace. We had a car to be very competitive today, so to say I'm disappointed is an understatement.”

Felled by the same rear-wheel problem on two cars, RLL’s lone contender, the continually impressive Louis Foster, had a top six in sight but was fired into the wall at the end of the longest straight – approaching the hairpin – and into the back of an innocent Felix Rosenqvist when the right-front suspension collapsed on the No. 45 Honda and created a sizable incident that brought out a red flag.

“We were having a really good race; we were strong,” Foster said. “We were following (21-lap race leader Christian) Rassmussen on our strategy, leading our strategy at one point, but had a suspension issue when I hit the brakes. I’ve never seen that happen before. The RLL boys did an amazing job all weekend. I don’t know how the heck that happens. This track is ridiculously bumpy. I’m still trying to figure out in my head what happened. Its super disappointing.” 

Foster and Rosenqvist were seen and released by IndyCar Medical, which was positive, but both were on the receiving end of unfortunate results that ruined their respective days. Foster was credited with 22nd, one spot behind Rosenqvist.