Graham Rahal, No. 02 McDonald’s Dallara/Honda/Firestone:  “Honestly, when I went up high I thought we were going to get it (win) finally because the car had so much momentum.  The McDonald’s car felt good all night and it’s no doubt we will win one soon.  I was just trying to get us an opportunity and we got it.  I pulled out of the draft, went up high and it (momentum) just died.  Unfortunately we just didn’t have enough speed.  When you go up that high the distance your taking there is massive and unfortunately we just didn’t have enough speed.  Before this race was the most nervous I’ve ever been.  I was watching people darn near hitting each other on the back straight last night in the warm-up so I knew it would be a crazy race.  It was action-packed from start to finish.  The idea was to get up front and just try to stay there.  If we could stay there, we were going to be with guys that know what they’re doing.  The McDonald’s guys worked hard tonight.  I told them we needed good stops and the second to last stop was what really put us in this position.  It was great what we did tonight; the McDonald’s car was top notch.  It just shows that we can beat these guys.  It’s going to take some effort but for us to be where we are now we’ve got to be pretty happy.”

 

·         FAST FACTS:  Was his second race here and his highest finish at this track.  He started 14th and ran as high as fifth but mid-race contact in the pits with Buddy Rice and contact with the wall on the final lap -- most likely due to a compromised part from the pit contact -- led to a 19th place finish…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 331 (only -22 behind fifth place Patrick, 353).