Investigation continues into Detroit RLL wheel failures

After investigating the three rear wheel detachments that took place with two of its cars at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing president Jay Frye says there was no singular cause tying the first problem with the left rear on Graham Rahal’s No. 15 Honda in the pre-race warmup session, his right-rear wheel in the race, and the lost right-rear wheel on Devlin DeFrancesco’s No. 30 Honda in the race.

“There is not a really a smoking gun, but we're re-evaluating many different things,” Frye told RACER. “From the life of the shelf life of wheels to maintenance of wheels to shelf life of wheel nuts, the maintenance of wheel nuts, to how we actually practice pit stops. Obviously, when something like that happens, you re-assess and evaluate everything. So that's what we're doing, because there wasn't one thing. There were multiple things that contributed to it, so that's why we're analyzing, evaluating everything, to make sure it doesn't happen again.”

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Detroit was among the most punishing races for RLL in many years.

Rahal was fast in qualifying, setting the fifth-best lap while rookie teammate Louis Foster impressed with 14th in the No. 45 Honda; DeFrancesco started 23rd. But with their respective wheel problems, Rahal finished 20th and DeFrancesco was 23rd, leaving Foster to lead the team home. However, a failure in his right-front suspension sent the No. 45 into the wall and then into the back of Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist at unabated speed.

Foster’s chassis was destroyed in the crash – Rosenqvist’s was repaired – and he’ll have a new car to shake down when practice starts Saturday morning for the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway.