Graham Rahal, No. 02 McDonald’s Dallara/Honda/Firestone:  “I got a really good start and got past (Hideki) Mutoh and was hoping to tuck in behind Marco but I just tapped him and lost the wing.  Then we came in to change the wing on the pit stop and the drive-shaft broke when I tried to leave.  To be honest I can’t tell you why it broke.  I don’t know if I released the clutch too soon.  We looked at the data and it doesn’t look like it so we’re not sure why it happened but it broke no matter what.  We fixed it and went back out later and the McDonald’s car felt really good and we ran really fast laps.  The amount of fuel we were saving was awesome, it was at a pretty impressive rate and a lot better than we thought we would.  Ultimately we parked it when we knew there was no reason to stay out since we couldn’t gain positions after we learned a lot.”

 

·         FAST FACTS:  Was his second race here.  He started 15th and finished 8th here last year…He started from pole on the streets of St. Pete and 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway oval this year…Highest start this season is two poles (St. Pete/street & Kansas/oval) and highest finish is third place at Richmond…He earned 12 points for 21st place and dropped from 8th place to 9th in series points with 301 (-34 to fifth place Patrick, 335).