AUSTIN, Texas – Entering the inaugural IndyCar Classic at Circuit of The Americas, it had been 10 NTT IndyCar Series races since Graham Rahal had piloted his No. 15 TOTAL Honda into the top-five, dating back to June of last year.
Now that streak is broken after a fourth-place run in Sunday’s race on the 20-turn, 3.41-mile road course.
Starting the day in 10th place, Rahal held steady in that position for roughly the first 10 laps of the race before climbing as high as second during green flag pit stops. Cycling back to 11th once pit stops were complete, it looked like Rahal had a top-10 finish well in hand if the race played out the way it was going with Will Power and Alexander Rossi holding onto the top two spots.
Then came the caution at lap 44 and the race was turned on its head. Having made his final pit stop just before the yellow flag flew, Rahal was among a number of drivers that had things roll their way, allowing them to move up the leaderboard while the leaders that had yet to pit had to give up their track position for service to their vehicles.
Rahal was able to move up to fourth place as a result and held serve for the remainder of the race to bank his best finish of the season.
