Rahal believes he can dominate in Detroit

The American, who has finished fourth and fifth in the Verizon IndyCar Series for the past two years, finished quickest in the morning practice and second fastest in the afternoon session around the 2.35-mile course, and said he feels the car is good enough for him to get his first win of the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season.

Referring to his lack of straightline speed, Rahal said: “This one is not so important when it comes to straight line performance. This morning we were, on the sector times, fastest in I think five corners, 18th on the back straight. I don't think necessarily we're quick, but it is what it is.

“I mean, we're just going to keep plugging along and doing the best we can. It's not so crucial here that it's going to be make or break for our day. If everything goes well, we'll qualify well in the morning, we'll start up front.

“I think if we start up front, we can take off and dominate this thing. I really feel that confident about where we're at. If we can be on that front row, we'll be strong, if everything goes to plan.

“Overall, it's been a place I've had some success, which is nice. But obviously today started off on the right foot. United Rentals car seems to be very strong, very competitive right off the trailer this morning. The first session, we didn't even change anything. I mean, there was no reason to.”

Rahal said that the afternoon warmth caused a slight degeneration in his car’s pace, as the grip went away.

He commented: “Definitely as the track heated up in the afternoon, it got slippery for me. I'm sure everybody will say the same. In fact, on my fastest lap, I was… supposed to be turning right into 11, but I was looking at the left-hand side wall. So I know we had a couple more tenths [of a second] in it.
It's going to be tricky out there. It's bumpy. You guys know that. It's bumpy. It's going to beat us up pretty good. We'll just have to go out there tomorrow and test it, hopefully the car will be nice and reliable. We'll get to the end and have a good day.

“I want to win a race now. It's a good opportunity for us tomorrow. I know our strength is race day. Always has been. Hopefully tomorrow and Sunday will be good days for us.”

The Dual in Detroit is a double-header event, the only one on the IndyCar calendar, and Rahal said he welcomed IndyCar simplifying the schedule for the weekend. At all other road/street course events, the best six from each group of 11 cars filters down into a 12-car Q2 session with the best six from that session going into the Firestone Fast Six shootout. At Detroit, the field is divided in half and each group of 11 gets 12 minutes on track and the best times decide the grid. There are separate qualifying sessions for the Saturday race and the Sunday race, and these are held on the morning prior to their respective race.

Said Rahal: “I'm kind of fine with just the consistency of it. In years past, it was practice on Friday morning, qualify Friday night, practice, then race, then qualify, then race. It was always a little funky.

“Look, I'm perfectly fine with it, you know, going the way it is. I suppose finishing second today, we're going to be group one. Maybe that's a good sign for me because my car was significantly better in the morning than it was this afternoon. I think a lot of guys will say that.

“For me, this morning, you know, it all pretty much came extremely easy. It was not easy!

“Maybe that's a good omen or a good sign for us. We'll see. I mean, I just like the consistency of the scheduling. We go racing, qualify in the morning, go racing. Hopefully we'll be up front.”

Rahal said his car had to be set up very differently than at last year’s Detroit race, and instead followed a setup pattern that was in line with one they discovered last month.

“This setup kind of started with a concept out of Long Beach,” he said. “It is very, very different from what we ran here last year, or over the last handful of years, so... It is certainly a departure in our mindset than what we had done for a while. But this was something that we had tried at Long Beach, in basic theory, and it worked relatively well. I mean, on race day, had it not been for a flat, we were in the top 5 for sure.

“You know, I wish we had found this maybe [the season-opener] at St. Pete or something like that, honestly. But we live, we learn. I think the tire has changed quite a bit this year. We've had to chase that. Maybe some guys haven't. But for us, like at Indy, we've had to chase it. We've had to chase it all year long.

“Certainly I think what we've got going here is better. I don't want to get over-confident, but hopefully it's going to be strong tomorrow.”