BELE ISLE, Mich – Alexander Rossi is getting tired of runner-up finishes. Takuma Sato, is okay with third place runs. For the second straight NTT IndyCar Series race, Rossi finished second and Sato brought his No. 30 Honda home across the finish line just behind in third.

That has Sato thinking championship. After seven races, the Rahal/Letterman/Lanigan Racing driver is currently fourth, 65 points out. Sato, has five top eight finishes in his last six starts on the season including a win at Barber. With Josef Newgarden, Simon Pagenaud and Alexander Rossi being the cream of the crop in 2019 with winning four of the last five races and five of the seven this season, Sato is the best in his class.

But, the Japanese driver is wanting to be considered as worst in the top class. See, he feels like he is a championship contending driver. He’s right too. He’s there. He can close that gap with a little bit of luck. The speed is there.

Sato, is driving better now than at any point of his Indy Car career. He had eight total podium finishes in his first 152 starts in the series and now he has three in seven starts in 2019.

He qualified ninth for Sunday’s race but with rain coming down on the 2.35-mile race track before the race began, it was go time for Sato. No one is as good as Sato in the wet. That’s why he quickly found himself in the top five after the first couple of laps. He’d remain there for the rest of the way and nab his 23rd career Indy Car top five finish.

It was also a great day for his teammate Graham Rahal too. He would finish seventh in his No. 15 Honda for his sixth top 10 finish in his last eight Belle Isle starts. It was also his fourth top 10 in his last six starts on the season as well.

Rahal, moves up from 12th to 10th in the season standings with hopes of moving up further on Sunday too.