The seventh 2022 IndyCar Wrap-Up is Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. The 2022 season was set up to be a big year for the RLLR group. They had committed early to expansion with a third full-time car and even auditioned a few drivers for this season in 2021. After a hotly contested driver search, the team settled on a young European-developed talent to pair with its stalwart, and an IndyCar regular looking for a break. This team was pretty even across the board with the lows being equally as low and the highs being equally as high for its trio of drivers.
Graham Rahal
The IndyCar veteran has long scored respectable results in the series and Rahal was looking to continue a streak of seven consecutive top ten championship finishes. It was a typical Rahal season, scoring respectable results but also being set behind the eight-ball with difficulties in qualifying. Though he had plenty of drives forward, those races did not end up with the same number of top five results as we saw in past seasons. With a dip in results, a dip in the championship followed.
What objectively was his best race?
Rahal was fourth at Toronto, a race where Rahal started 14th and made up a few positions, while also taking advantage of going long on the first stint of the race while others were stuck behind slower traffic. He wasn't quite good enough for the podium, but fourth was his best ever finish at Toronto.
What subjectively was his best race?
Portland saw a good balance in the car for Rahal. He was moving forward on each stint. He found longevity in the tires without sacrificing pace. It turned an 11th-place grid position into a fifth-place result.
He also had a good day in the second IMS road course race, going from 17th to seventh.
What objectively was his worst race?
At Belle Isle, Rahal qualified 23rd and then banged the wall on the second lap, ending his race and leaving him classified in 26th.
What subjectively was his worst race?
At Belle Isle, Rahal qualified 23rd and then banged the wall on the second lap, ending his race and leaving him classified in 26th.
What subjectively was his worst race?
Belle Isle was bad, but I wonder how Texas would have turned out if Rahal was not taken out from an overambitious move from Devlin DeFrancesco. None of the RLLR cars started in the top twenty that day. Rahal wasn't in a great position on track when it happened, but that race ended with Santino Ferrucci finishing ninth in the #45 HyVee Honda for the RLLR, and Christian Lundgaard was running well before retiring from the race. If Rahal had been able to see the checkered flag, I feel he would have possibly been around where Ferrucci finished.
Rahal was also unfortunately caught up in the lap 26, turn six traffic jam at Nashville and it ended his race. Nashville was the only race Rahal started in the top ten having qualified ninth.
Graham Rahal's 2022 Statistics
Championship Position: 11th (331 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 2
Top Tens: 9
Laps Led: 10
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 0
Fast Twelves: 5
Average Start: 15.375
Average Finish: 12.353
Christian Lundgaard
Lundgaard made a great first impression in IndyCar during the 2021 season, showing up for the second race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, qualifying in the top five and spending much of the race in the top ten before finishing 12th. Everyone waited eagerly for the Dane to become a permanent fixture on the IndyCar grid. There were teething issues, but the full season matched what we saw on day one, and IndyCar has another exciting young driver on its hands.
What objectively was his best race?
Second in the second IMS road course race this season. A year after making his debut in this exact race, Lundgaard had his best performance in an IndyCar. Starting sixth, Lundgaard had a great handle on the car throughout the entire race and moved into a podium position as the race went along. He kept Alexander Rossi honest, but never showed the speed to get the victory. Second was fitting for his performance.
Second in the second IMS road course race this season. A year after making his debut in this exact race, Lundgaard had his best performance in an IndyCar. Starting sixth, Lundgaard had a great handle on the car throughout the entire race and moved into a podium position as the race went along. He kept Alexander Rossi honest, but never showed the speed to get the victory. Second was fitting for his performance.
What subjectively was his best race?
Lundgaard was sniffing a podium in Portland. He was one of the quickest cars all race and went toe-to-toe with the Penske entries. Unfortunately for Lundgaard, things went haywire in the final stint. He stalled on his final pit stop, taking away any shot of the podium. Then he blew the first corner chicane and hit a sponsorship board, which was then stuck on his first wing and forced him to make an extra stop.
Goodbye top ten finish, hello 21st!
However, Lundgaard did rebound in the next race at Laguna Seca going from 16th on the grid to fifth in a sneaky drive as many were fixated on the championship battle. He had great speed as the tires wore and made up 11 positions on a three-stop strategy.
What objectively was his worst race?
Lundgaard retired from the second Iowa race due to brake issues after 112 laps, leaving him in 26th.
What subjectively was his worst race?
Lundgaard retired from the second Iowa race due to brake issues after 112 laps, leaving him in 26th.
What subjectively was his worst race?
Portland because it was a stellar day and the final result doesn't show it. I can't even say he made rookie mistakes. Stalls happen on pit stops and he didn't miss the first chicane due to overaggressive driving. He was getting some pressure from Alexander Rossi, but Lundgaard was trying to limit the damage and ended up catching one of the many sponsorship boards that were in that area. If IndyCar didn't have to create such a deterrent for drivers missing that chicane, Lundgaard is seventh or eighth at worse in this race and not forced to make an extra stop.
Christian Lundgaard's 2022 Statistics
Championship Position: 14th (323 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 1
Top Fives: 2
Top Tens: 7
Laps Led: 2
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 3
Fast Twelves: 5
Average Start: 16.648
Average Finish: 13.176
Jack Harvey
After being an early driver signing during the 2021 silly season, Harvey joined RLLR with expectations of greater success than he achieved at Meyer Shank Racing. While there were plenty bursts of speed, the results didn't always follow at MSR. A change of scenery was hoped to bring out the best of the driver and team. Unfortunately, Harvey didn't quite find his stride and never looked the driver we saw in the previous few seasons.
What objectively was his best race?
A tenth-place finish at Nashville, which was flattering because Harvey easily was handed five or six positions due to the number or retirements.
What subjectively was his best race?
Uh.... not many good days stand out. He went from 23rd to 13th at St. Petersburg, and that was a recovery drive after he was forced to make an extra pit stop early in the race. He also went from 20th to 13th at Road America.
There was never a race where during or afterward I thought, "Man, Jack Harvey had a good day." That is a bad thing.
What objectively was his worst race?
Twice Jack Harvey finished 24th. The first was the Indianapolis 500 where Harvey rolled the dice going long on fuel in the final stint. The Jimmie Johnson caution caught him a lap down and Harvey was 24th. The next was Gateway where Harvey was running in the top ten when he got in the turn four wall on lap 145.
What subjectively was his worst race?
Twice Jack Harvey finished 24th. The first was the Indianapolis 500 where Harvey rolled the dice going long on fuel in the final stint. The Jimmie Johnson caution caught him a lap down and Harvey was 24th. The next was Gateway where Harvey was running in the top ten when he got in the turn four wall on lap 145.
What subjectively was his worst race?
Gateway was bad because that was actually the one day I thought Harvey was doing well and was in for a great finish and then he tossed it away. He was the best RLLR car that night and he wound up the worst finisher of the three cars. Adding more salt to that wound, Harvey was never the top RLLR finisher in a race this season.
The #45 Honda was the top RLLR finisher once though, and it was the race Harvey wasn't in because of a practice accident. It was Texas where Santino Ferrucci stepped in the last minute, was allowed a few laps Sunday morning before the race to check the seatbelts and the car and then Ferrucci went from 27th, last on the grid, to ninth.
Neither look good for Mr. Harvey.
Jack Harvey's 2022 Statistics
Championship Position: 22nd (209 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 1
Laps Led: 0
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 0
Fast Twelves: 2
Average Start: 16.625
Average Finish: 17.313
An Early Look Ahead
The foundation is there, but RLLR just has to find that next 10-15%.
Graham Rahal looked like Graham Rahal, and that is a good place to be. Rahal is going to be a regular in the top ten, but when the qualifying woes are what they are that means it will be tougher to get into the top five or on the podium and victories are largely unfathomable unless everything clicks.
Qualifying is the team's biggest weakness and it was across the board. The cars were all slow together. It was never one driver dragging the team down or one driver outshining the other two on a weekly basis. They were all pretty much around each other. If one was good, they were all somewhat good. If they were lost, they were all in the dark.
The good news is Lundgaard can do what Rahal does and take a lackluster qualifying run and turn it into a top ten. We also saw great pace out of Lundgaard and the team looked to have found something later in the season. If RLLR keeps it up, there is no reason why it cannot be winning races again. It would take a lot to get back in the championship fight, but there is no reason why Rahal and Lundgaard couldn't have a race victory take either or both into the top ten of the championship.
As for Harvey, this was stunning. He has been good in IndyCar. He did really well with Meyer Shank Racing considering it was pretty much a single-car team and Harvey was the driver the team grew with from Indianapolis 500 one-off in 2017 to full-time team and starting to experiment with a second car in 2021. Harvey was 15th and 13th in the championship in his two full seasons with MSR, good results for a single-car operation.
Harvey dropped to 22nd this year. He did miss the Texas race but even if he matched his average results in that one event he only would have been 20th in the championship. I believe Harvey has great pace. It could have been the first year as a three-car program meant someone was going to draw the short straw but that ended up being Harvey for nearly every race. There wasn't one weekend where he was the RLLR driver leading the way. He cannot afford that happening again in 2023. RLLR is taking a big chance with three cars and these are three funded programs. The team cannot afford to blow that money, and if results don't turn around it will find someone else. They collected a lot of phone numbers in 2021 and they know those drivers can get results.
Even with Harvey's worries, I am optimistic for RLLR in 2023, but it is difficult to break into the top ten of the championship. The top ten in 2022 was three Penske cars, three Ganassi cars, two Arrow McLaren SP cars and two Andrettis. RLLR was best of the rest, but a rest that is packed together. RLLR does have more resources than most of the rest and it should challenge for more. It will be interesting to see how this program does as RLLR expands to run the BMW LMDh program in IMSA. It has already run two successful programs in two different series concurrently, but the LMDh move is a big leap for the team and added pressure as it takes on Porsche, Acura and Cadillac. The team should be able to handle it, but it is not unprecedented for an organization to be down across the board.
It is clear where this team must improve. The biggest concern is it is some of the same areas we have been waiting for RLLR to clean up for the last few seasons. If it can make 2023 the year it lines all the pieces up then wonderful. Until that happens, this is at least a good team that just cannot get a handle on being great.
