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Graham Rahal Talks St. Pete, Ride Swapping, and More

Graham Rahal answered questions for the media today. As we already know, Graham will be racing the No. 15 National Guard Honda this 2014 IndyCar Season. When asked about what it takes to go quick at St. Pete, Graham responded:

“Well, I think it’s a pretty typical sort of street course as far as the layout is concerned. However, the one thing that I think makes St. Pete pretty different is a lot of time, even on some of the street courses, there’s a small margin for error. St. Pete, especially when you get in the back section of the track, turns five, six, seven, eight, there’s no margin for error at all.”

There has been a lot of Twitter chatter this week of Graham reaching out to Dale Earnhardt Jr suggesting the possibility of “ride swapping.” Graham said: “I was surprised he responded.” Graham acknowledges the difficulties of setting something like this up, but feels that with both drivers having National Guard as sponsors it could help.

Graham was asked how much of a factor Juan Pablo Montoya will be this year or if it will take time to learn these cars. If the reporter was looking for any kind of conflict, he found none in Graham’s response.

“There’s a reason the guy has won in NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula One. He is without a doubt one of the most talented people to ever drive. I have no doubt he’s going to be right on pace.”

Finally Graham briefly discussed the importance of his relationship with his engineering team. Graham stated:

“We have to stay in touch. That’s what a great engineering team is all about, the relationship between engineer and driver. So we just have to make sure that we stay in touch and we work very closely together.”