FORT WORTH, TX – We all knew that Rahal/Letterman/Lanigan Racing would be among the ones to beat for Saturday night’s DXC Technology 600 at the Texas Motor Speedway, especially Takuma Sato.

He was second in both Indy Car practice sessions run this weekend to go along with earning his second pole of the season on Friday evening. Sato, would lead the first 60 laps of the race before hitting pit lane for the first time.

Unfortunately, that’s when his night changed. Sato, got into one of his crewmen and slid too close to the wall as a result. It would be a disastrous pit stop which ended in a penalty too.

Sato, went from being in a league of his own to last, three laps down. He’d never make up for it and finish only 15th. This was the first time he failed to finish in the top 10 at Texas since 2016 as he’s now 95 points out of the lead as a result of tonight’s bad run.

But, Sato’s RLL teammate of Graham Rahal shined instead. Rahal finished third in his No. 15 Honda for his fourth straight top six finish at Texas. He came from the ninth starting spot and had the pace to contend in the end. Rahal, now has six top seven finishes in his last eight starts on the year and moves into eighth in the series standings heading to Road America in two weeks. 

“It was a great run by the Fleet Cost & Care guys,” said Rahal. “We raced smart tonight and made moves when we had to. The guys did a hell of a job in the pits and made our lives easier. That first stop was phenomenal, we jumped a lot of guys. I’m proud of this organization. We’ve kept our heads down, and finally, I think we’ve been rewarded a little bit. Honda was great tonight and the fuel mileage was great. On that first stint, even with the parade and pace, I think we went 63 laps or something, which was awesome, so hats off to Honda for giving us that. Our guys have worked awfully hard and I’m extremely proud of them.”

The next few races are big for Rahal too. In three starts at Road America, Rahal has never finished worse than eighth. Then, it’s onto Toronto, Iowa and Mid-Ohio, all three being good tracks for him too.