20th: Graham Rahal 4-lap avg. speed of 229.628 mph (L1: 39.1594, L2: 39.1597, L3: 39.2097, L4: 39.2468)
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 National Guard Dallara/Honda/Firestone: "The way our car has gone the last couple of days, it gets pretty loose as the run has gone on. Both Oriol and myself have found great improvements today to find that sort of speed. To be honest I made a mistake, I should have run sixth gear it didn't fell like it was quite pulling the gear but it probably could have. At the end of the day I'm really proud of the National Guard guys. Going into qualifying yesterday, we had no idea what to expect out of the car in qualifying. We hadn't even tried qualifying trim and this morning we kind of threw a flyer at it a little bit. Our qualifying car isn't all that different than a race car so we will add more downforce for Monday's practice, hopefully pound around with Oriol and get some laps in traffic. I think our race car is going to be pretty good. We didn't get a lot of track time last week, nobody did, but I felt like we were a little bit behind. We have a lot more confidence going after what we came into yesterday and today. Tomorrow is a really big day for us. "
FAST FACTS: Will be his seventh Indy 500… His best qualifying position in the Indy 500 is fourth in 2009 with Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing and best finish is third with Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing in 2011 after he led six laps… He ran in the top-five in four of his six previous races here… In 2008, with Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, he was the highest Indy 500 starter of the Champ Car transitioning teams with his 13th place qualifying effort but made contact on L36 after driving high to avoid the slower car of Lloyd and retired in 33rd place… He qualified fourth for NHLR in the 2009 Indy 500 but made contact on L56 while fifth and retired in 31st... In 2010, he competed for his father's team - RLL - for the first time in an Indy car. He qualified seventh and ran as high as second but a blocking penalty on L188/200 dropped him from third to a 12th place finish… He qualified 29th with Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing in 2011 and earned his best finish at Indy to date of third place after he led six laps... In 2012, he qualified 12th, ran as high as third and finished 13th for SCCGR… In 2013, he qualified 26th and pitted from ninth place for his second to last stop and his outside rear tire changer had a mechanical problem and Rahal returned to the track in 21st place. He was in 17th with eight laps to go and lost control of his car in Turn 2 and made contact with the wall… His Indy car highlights include a win (2008) and pole (2009) in St. Petersburg.