Graham Rahal Scores Second Pole of the Season in Portland

Graham Rahal scores his second pole of the season at Portland. (Photo: Luis Torres | The Podium Finish)

PORTLAND, Ore. — For the first time since 2009, Graham Rahal is a multiple-time NTT P1 Pole Award winner. Rahal utilized the primary Firestone tires to its full potential during Saturday’s qualifying session, clocking in at 58.3195 seconds and will pace the field on Sunday.

After the session wrapped up, Rahal was met with a huge smile from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing co-owner Michael Lanigan, who he shares an incredible bond with, as their solid performance on road courses continued.

Qualifying on pole isn’t much of Rahal’s forte, but since scoring his first one of the year in last month’s Gallagher Grand Prix at Indianapolis, he’s been motivated to showcase he’s still a force to be reckoned with in INDYCAR. The senior driver at RLL Racing has become one of the favorites to win Sunday’s BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland.

“I feel good about tomorrow. Well, I feel good about Portland and Laguna (Seca, next Sunday), both places we should be very solid, just knowing that the GP, we made really good gains. It seems like our road course cars have turned a good corner here,” Rahal said. “It’s just nice to make it happen, frankly. More than anything else, it’s nice to feel the expectation from within, to know that we should be there and that we can make it happen.

“That’s different than the last few years. People wonder about qualifying, but when you go into qualifying every single time knowing that you’ve got to drive an absolutely perfect, perfect lap to even advance out of your group. It’s very, very hard to do that.

“If you go into qualifying feeling confident and you don’t feel like you have to over-drive and you feel like you just put a good solid lap together and you’re going to be in the hunt, it’s nice to feel that again, and that’s kind of where we’re at right now.”

Starting alongside Rahal will be last year’s race winner Scott McLaughlin, who came up 0.0330 seconds shy of scoring back-to-back poles in Portland. A small mistake in the Firestone Fast Six prevented him from besting Rahal’s time, but he’s still content with starting on the front row.

“I felt like I just left a little bit out there,” said McLaughlin. “My first lap on the reds, which should have been probably my money lap, we locked our right front going into [turn] 12, so basically that’s the first lap after the alternate start-finish line. I just had to bail out and just sacrifice that lap, save the tire and go. But I just think I missed that push lap there.

“Our Freightliner Chevy all day, all weekend has been really strong. We’re basically running exactly the same setup we ran last year, and it’s handy when you have cars that we’ve had in the past that are just very good and suit me and I can just sort of work on my driving.

“A little bummed with the mistake. That’s totally on me. But at the end of the day, Graham put a really good lap together, and we start P2 which isn’t bad.”

However, one of McLaughlin’s teammates didn’t have the best of times in qualifying. With 7:30 remaining in the second round of qualifying, Josef Newgarden crashed into the Turn 12 barriers, bringing out the only red flag in the session. Because he caused a red flag, his bid to make the Fast Six ended — he’ll roll off 12th.

With qualifying in the books, all eyes are on the final practice session at 7:15 p.m. ET on Saturday as the field has one more chance to dial up their cars before Sunday’s 110-lap race.

One topic going into race day is about tire compound will fare best for the long haul. Firestone brought a new compound to Portland and Rahal commented how he struggled on the red tires, which played a role in switching to the primaries that led to the quick time.

“A lot of what we had to do today was just to get the car to rotate for those specifically,” Rahal said. “But I think for this afternoon, we’ll just go back on them, and we should be OK.”

Rahal looks to score his first INDYCAR win since Belle Isle Race No. 2 in 2017. (Photo: Luis Torres | The Podium Finish)

Additionally, much cooler conditions are expected Sunday compared to the hot and humid conditions drivers dealt with Saturday. The mindset shifts to how will the race unfold and how critical race strategy will be. Look no further than in 2018 when RLL Racing last won in Oregon with Takuma Sato, who got the job done after starting 20th.

For Rahal, he’s encouraged with where he’s starting as Sato remains the only driver to have won outside the front row since INDYCAR returned to the 1.964-mile road course five years ago.

“When you’re in that position, I think you can try to take care of them and maintain the reds a little bit better,” Rahal said. “Let’s see what we get tomorrow, go racing and hopefully have a good clean start and make those things last as long as we can.

“To do this in two (strategies), you’ve got to go 35-36 laps on your reds. That’s a lot to ask. I’ve already done it this weekend on blacks, so I know the blacks can do it and do it competitively, but it’s a lot to ask of the reds. Most people won’t do it to be clear.”

Rahal hopes Sunday will be the day he shines to his first win since Belle Isle in 2017.

Another driver who is hoping to follow suit is championship leader Alex Palou. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver qualified fifth as he’ll look to lock up his second Astor Cup in three years. Palou’s championship rival and teammate Scott Dixon outqualified him by a single spot as the six-time INDYCAR champ must be within 54 points to send the championship fight to Laguna Seca next weekend.

Sunday’s BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland is set for 3:00 p.m. ET on NBC.

2023 BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland Starting Lineup