Graham Rahal suggested more could have been done to aid his passage through the slower cars at the Milwaukee Mile on Sunday, after finding the wall for the second time in as many races while lapping backmarkers.
The youngest driver in the field had driven a competitive race from a career-best second place start in the ABC Supply/AJ Foyt 225, resisting the advances of Indianapolis winner Scott Dixon and eventual Milwaukee winner Ryan Briscoe in the early stages. He regained second place by lap 49 after passing both Helio Castroneves and polesitter Marco Andretti, and was still as high as third when, seven days after becoming the first victim of the Indianapolis 500, he saw his efforts go west after being forced to retire after 129 laps.
Battling traffic on the one-mile course, the Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing car got high into the marbles attempting to pass Darren Manning. The Briton was, in turn, dicing it out with Buddy Rice and, when the American slowed to pit, Manning went to the outside to avoid hitting him. Rahal was alongside the AJ Foyt car at that point and, having got onto the loose rubber, was powerless to prevent it from hitting the wall.
Manning apologised for his part in the incident, but admitted that he had nowhere else to go and, while Foyt himself insisted that a little patience on Rahal's part might have helped, the NHLR pilot had other ideas.
I was just on the outside of Manning going into [Turns] Three and Four, an unhurt Rahal explained later, He had been all over the track previously anyway, so I was struggling to get by him, but I don't think the officials were doing enough to help the leaders with the traffic, so it was definitely tough.
"I was on the outside of Manning, and I don't think it was necessarily him, but for sure his spotter didn't tell him I was there. He was still racing me in every corner. He moved up on the outside of Buddy and I was going to hit him if I didn't move. I didn't think I was too wide but, once I was in the marbles, I was fully off the throttle and the brakes and I couldn't get it to turn. It's unfortunate.
