Graham Rahal, No. 02 McDonald’s Dallara/Honda/Firestone:  “It’s frustrating because the McDonald’s team had a good weekend going and I just wanted to have just a normal race with no mistakes and if we did that I knew we would have a good result.  I just couldn’t do it.  I hit the brakes and they instantly locked so before I even turned into the corner I was trying to figure out how to save it and just couldn’t.  The rear brakes just locked up and it happened instantly and I don’t know exactly why it happened.  It hadn’t happened any other time going into that section but one lap out of 85 is enough though unfortunately.  The whole time I thought I was being conservative and wasn’t making any mistakes and that’s what I was hoping for.  I wanted a top-five finish here.  I don’t think we had a car that could win but I will say that we were close; the McDonald’s car felt really good.  It’s a frustrating result for the McDonald’s team because the car was quick all day.  I got by Dario and that was good and then I thought I was going to have something for (third place) Briscoe but we didn’t quite have enough for him.  Later I had a shot at passing PT (Tracy) but I made the mistake of pushing Push to Pass too early so I couldn’t use it down the back straight because you can’t use it for 10 seconds after each time.  I got up to fourth in the race but then made a mistake.  It’s a frustrating result.”

 

·         FAST FACTS:  Was his second major open wheel race here but he has competed in many other series at his “home track.”  In 2008, he started 14th and ran as high as eighth, but an off track excursion on lap 53 limited him to a 16th place finish.  At the age of 16 in 2005, he became the youngest to claim the SCCA National Formula Atlantic championship at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs here by a dominant 43-seconds.  He also competed in the Star Mazda race here in 2005 (S/F 4/9).   Tested a Grand Am car here in 2007…Highest start this season is two poles (St. Pete/street & Kansas/oval) and highest finish is third place at Richmond…Is ranked 8th in series points with 289 (only 32 behind fifth place Patrick).