- McDonald’s driver Graham Rahal was looking to build momentum after earning his highest oval finish to date of fourth place in Milwaukee the previous weekend but he struggled to control his race car in the opening laps of the Bombardier Learjet 550k at the high-banked Texas Motor Speedway and crashed on Lap 2 of 228 Saturday night.  In the opening lap he dropped from his 12th place qualifying position to 18 and continue to lose positions while he struggled to control his race car before he spun on the backstretch and was hit from behind by EJ Viso, who had no where to go.  The two cars collected Milka Duno as well.  Rahal was checked out at the infield medical center and cleared after it was determined he sustained no injuries.  He retired in 22nd place and collected 12 points to drop from eight in the point standings to ninth with a total of 126.  Team Penske’s Ryan Briscoe dominated the race but dropped to second behind teammate Helio Castroneves on the final stop and won the event.  Following are Rahal’s post race comments:  

 

“It’s frustrating,” said Rahal. “We struggled a little bit all weekend but the McDonald’s car felt very comfortable and very good. It was unfortunate because right away something did not feel right as I went into Turn 1 and I lost a couple of spots in the initial start. I was hanging on going into Turns 3 and 4 the car was so loose and I lost tons of spots maybe six or seven spots. Something did not feel right going back into Turn 1 and I let up for the second lap and I was trying to be careful but as I went into Turn 1 something snapped. I couldn’t hang on. I feel bad for the others involved. It was horrible.”