Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing's Graham Rahal will have more catching up than most to do at this weekend's Road runner Turbo Indy 300 at Kansas Speedway as he makes his IndyCar Series oval debut.
The 19-year old may have won on his series debut in St Petersburg, but missed out on round one at Homestead-Miami Speedway after crashing in pre-race testing. As a result, he has yet to tackle an oval race in anything bigger than an Atlantic Series machine, and knows he has a steep learning curve ahead of him.
I'm looking forward to my oval debut in the IndyCar Series, but I don't know too much about racing at Kansas Speedway," Rahal admitted, "I have actually been there once to watch my dad's team race, but that doesn't translate much too actually driving there myself.
Last weekend, Rahal had one of the fastest cars on the streets of Long Beach, but was unable to capitalise on a strong points-earning finish and retired in 13th place after running as high as fourth in the event, which caused him to drop from fourth to ninth in the IndyCar Series standings. Although this is only the second race on an oval for the five teams transitioning from the Champ Car World Series, Rahal is optimistic that NHLR is already making progress.
Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing has done a good job preparing the cars for Kansas, and has done a little work in the wind tunnel, so I think we will be a little more competitive there than we were on the one oval race we have had so far this year, he said, It's hard to catch up on the years of knowledge the other teams have in such a short time frame but, if anyone can do it, this team can.
