Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio entry list
Graham Rahal enters Round 13 of the Verizon IndyCar Series season -- the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio on Aug. 2 -- in second place in the championship standings. It's a career high for the 26-year-old from New Albany, Ohio, but he's not settling for second with three races left.
"We got to have this never-say-die attitude," the driver of the No. 15 Steak 'n Shake Honda for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing said on the INDYCAR teleconference. "If I have a race-winning car, we have to win. We can't finish second or third. If we have a 10th-place car, we have to find a way to finish fifth. So that's what we had to do this season. There's no doubt this team can perform and win a championship. We got to keep fighting hard."
Rahal has 42 points to make up on front-runner Juan Pablo Montoya of Team Penske as he seeks his first series title, and the 90-lap race on the 2.258-mile, 13-turn Mid-Ohio Sports Car course works into the team's strength. Rahal has been the runner-up in two of the three races on permanent road courses this season.
“All those tracks we ran pretty close set-up-wise to each other so I do feel really good about where we stand with our road course set-up heading into the Honda Indy 200," said Rahal, who has a best finish of fifth in 2014 at Mid-Ohio. "We have been one of the more competitive cars on all tracks, but what gives me confidence is knowing that at Mid-Ohio last year we did as well as we did and I don’t think our car was nearly as good then as it is now.
"I think at this point Juan has a heck of a lot more to lose than I do. I think Juan has to take more of a conservative role. I mean, it's his championship to lose. We're more in an attack mode. We have nothing to lose and we're going to try to catch him as quick as we can."
Drink up and support research
Rahal also announced that Steak ‘n Shake will donate $1 from every Graham Rahal milkshake (chocolate ice cream mixed with M&Ms) sold in Ohio in August to the Graham Rahal Foundation to benefit FightSMA (spinal muscular atrophy) and support research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
"Hopefully everybody will go back and spend the three or four bucks it costs to get a shake and have it ultimately go to a good cause," he said.
Rahal will be greeting fans, signing autographs and giving out Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio tickets and Steak 'n Shake prize packs from 4-5:30 p.m. July 30 at the Steak ‘n Shake at Easton Town Center (4047 Morse Crossing) in Columbus.
Listen to the full teleconference: