ST. PETERSBURG, Fla – Teamwork and continuity. That’s what Rahal/Letterman/Lanigan Racing has strived for. It’s no secret, this organization has been among the hardest working NTT IndyCar Series teams in the paddock. See, the team decided to hit the reset button when they brought Graham Rahal over for 2013. They knew if they continued going down the path that they were, then darker days were ahead.

Rahal, left Chip Ganassi Racing following the 2012 season and came back home. He wanted to be a part of his dads team. He knew though, it would be challenging. RLL had seen brighter days when he came. In his first season, he had one podium, two top five finishes and just five top 10’s. The second generation driver also only led six laps. His teammate, James Jakes, one top five finish (2nd in Belle Isle) and three top 10’s.

The team had a plan then- downsize.

From the 2013 offseason on, they merged all their resources into one team. Time to build up the right way. They ran a second car for half of a season and paired Rahal with Oriol Servia to get the right feedback. It started working. By 2015, Rahal was in victory lane again, at his hometrack (Mid-Ohio) at that. In 2015, Rahal had two wins and two runner-up’s to go along with eight top five finishes overall and 10 top 10’s. He would finish fourth in the final standings.

The next season, Rahal would finish fifth in the final standings after one win, two runner-ups, eight top fives again and eight top 10’s. 2017, well he won two more times but finished sixth in the final standings. See, 2017 looked a lot like 2016. 2016 looked like 2015.

They were asked multiple times in their successful days about adding another car to team with Rahal. Their response was similar each time –  they just didn’t want to add a car for the sake of just adding one. They didn’t want to take anything or any resources away from Rahal’s No. 15 Honda, so why spread themselves thin? The second car was to add to Rahal’s program, not deter it.

The problem was, that success was good and all, but they needed more. There’s only so much you can do with one car. They were maxed out. They hit their ceiling. Rahal, was doing all the checklists. He had to do all the setup changes. They didn’t have another car to try stuff out on.

That’s where Takuma Sato came in last year. It was a year of learning each other of expansion. This year, they’re ready to be championship contenders.

This weekend, is proof in the pudding. On Friday, Rahal worked on one half of the car, his teammate Takuma Sato the other.

“The important thing today was to gather data,” Sato said on Friday. “We were mainly working on the rear end and Graham (Rahal) was working on the front end. We split the program, so hopefully, we can both be better for tomorrow. I think it was a very good day.”

See where this helps now? From 2015 through 2017, Rahal had to figure that all out by himself. Last year, they had to collect data to see where they can help each other out. This year, they have all the notes and can split the workload.

“Through the off-season we had some really good tests,” Rahal said. “We really kind of worked on separate paths in order to kind of build up our toolbox, so to speak.

“I feel like the off-season tests went really well. You saw this morning I think Taku was pretty quick. Yesterday we were both competitive.

“I feel like we’re starting to see signs of positive progress. But it’s been good to kind of evolve, to bring on Allen, to get Tom into his new role as technical director. Allen and Eddie are very close friends, worked together for a long time. They’re like an old married couple. I joke about that with them. Those two are always in sync, which is really good. I think that helps as we go forward here.

“I think we’ll see the fruits of our labor over the next few weeks. It’s not like it’s going to click immediately, but I do think through all the development we’ve done and through the growth that we’ve seen, there’s no reason this team can’t win a handful or multiple races combined for this year. I feel like we’re headed down the right path.”

Rahal mentioned that they have continuity this year and really didn’t have any turnover this offseason.

“We both know where we want to be, where our cars are, where we’re a little bit different. You kind of just have to know that and accept that, work towards your ultimate goals.

“We know where our strengths and weaknesses are, things like that. That’s really a positive for us. But I think, again, bringing Allen onboard, if nothing else, we’ve been trying a lot of stuff that we didn’t even consider last year.

“We’ve headed down paths. Maybe the core setup isn’t ultimately massively different, there’s a lot of things with dampers, other areas that we’ve messed with that I think are showing really positive signs.

“At the end of the day, like we look at it yesterday, I think we were 11th, two and a half 10ths out of first. You’re 1/10th out of third or fourth. It’s so competitive that you’re looking for fine little details.”