Graham Rahal has pointed to qualifying as his and his team’s biggest focus as he works towards an elusive first win of the season.
Rahal’s race pace has been there this season, but he has found himself starting from back in the pack and has not been able to earn more than a single podium nearly two-thirds of the way through the year.
He has achieved five top-five finishes and has improved on his starting position in all but two races this year, but those have not been enough to keep him from falling to ninth in the points standings.
With a 32nd place finish in the Indianapolis 500 adding to his points deficit, Rahal is now over 120 points out of the lead and feels that he no longer can think about anything other than wins.
“With qualifying, we’ve got to get a little better,” Rahal told Motorsport Week ahead of Friday’s practice session.
“Qualifying is still our dagger. For sure, we’re going to try and win some races. That’s our focus now.
“The championship, you can kind of put that to the side. We need to go win races and that’s what we’re going to try to do.
“Obviously, qualifying further forward would help that effort significantly.”
Rahal has started no higher than ninth all season, but even that is better than either of his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team-mates have been able to muster.
The 14-year IndyCar veteran has not won a race yet this season, and indeed has not won a race since 2017 when he won both races from the Detroit GP double-header.
This weekend’s race from Mid-Ohio could be Rahal’s chance to turn his performance around, as it is one of his favorite tracks on the calendar.
Qualifying for the Honda 200 begins Saturday at 12:00 noon EDT around the 2.26-mile course.
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