FORT WORTH, TX – We already knew heading into this weekend that the Rahal/Letterman/Lanigan Racing group would be among the ones to watch for Saturday night’s DXC Technology 600 (8 p.m. ET/NBCSN/INDYCAR Radio Network) at the Texas Motor Speedway. See, Graham Rahal boasts three consecutive top six finishes on the high banked 1.5-mile track including a win in 2016.

For the last superspeedway race a couple weeks ago in Indy, Rahal was in the top seven or eight for a majority of the race before being collected in an accident on Lap 176 with Sebastien Bourdais while battling for a spot in the top five.

Over his last four starts on the season, that crash in the Indy 500 is Rahal’s only blemish. He has four top 10 finishes in those five races. Now, he’s after more at Texas.

“Right off the bat, the Fleet Cost & Care car was pretty competitive,” said Rahal after turning the third quickest lap in Thursday night’s rain shortened practice session. “The speed was there, which was nice. When I saw the speed flash up on my second or third lap, it was a 215 (mph) already, which was a little bit of a surprise. It wasn’t a great tow, and yet the speed was there, so the car’s got some pace.

“I think both of ours (Takuma Sato) do, so we’ve just got to do some tweaking overnight. The race is going to be a big guess at this point because it’s going to be hotter and the truck race is before ours, but in general, I feel pretty good.”

Sato, has been strong lately too. He finished in the top 10 in each of the last two years at Texas as the race in 2017 saw him and Scott Dixon crash while battling for a spot inside of the top five in the Lonestar state. In the ‘500, Sato finished an impressive third. The Japanese driver has five top eight finishes in his last seven starts on the season and the only reason that the number isn’t higher is because he got a late race flat tire on a late restart in the second duel in Belle Isle last Sunday while running in the top six.

“I feel good,” said Sato after posting the second quickest lap of the night on Thursday. “Honestly, I think it’s a bit early to say for the tires and downforce and stuff. I don’t know if Scott (Dixon) (also said this in his press conference), but we had only few laps, to be honest. Did not even get through, I don’t know, half of the stint, I wouldn’t think. I think Firestone did a great job to bring the tire that has a really good feeling, solid feeling, more downforce than last year. But not only that, I think Firestone doing a great job. So, I was obviously looking forward to a little bit more traffic runs, to go through the stint and see how the balance shift will be. But, obviously, with the rain, we cannot do anything at the moment.”

In qualifying, Sato earned his second pole of the season while Rahal will start ninth. Sato, was second quickest in both practice sessions overall this weekend while Rahal was third and seventh respectively himself.