By: Ashley McCubbin

TORONTO, Ontario — “After Indy, the month of May took — I’m 70 years old, and the month of May took a real toll on me. I wasn’t sleeping well at night. We’re here to win. We’re not here to fricking play around or to be part of it. We’re here to win.”

In the past two months, Bobby Rahal is the first to admit his health was probably “knocked a few steps back” courtesy of the anguish he had been dealing with for the past couple months with his race team.

When NTT IndyCar Series completed qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 in May, there was a surprise in seeing Graham Rahal not qualify for the main show. Now two months later with the Indy Recovery Plan in play, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLLR) visited victory lane in the Honda Indy Toronto with Christian Lundgaard.

“This weekend was a fantastic weekend. We didn’t unload great. We unloaded okay, but we had to work at it,” Bobby Rahal said in the post-race media. “The thing I’m most proud of is that the team… Christian (Lundgaard), Graham (Rahal), Jack (Harvey)… every session I would sit in the engineering meetings after the sessions, and they were — the issues each of them were having, they were sharing happily to try to find an answer for it. I think as you saw over the course of the weekend we kept getting better, better, and better.

“I think today of the highlight with Christian really, I think it’s fair to say, dominating the race.”

Lungaard wasn’t the only RLLR driver to make it into the top-10 results, as Rahal rebounded for ninth after getting nose damage during the opening lap incident in turn two.

It certainly marked a big change demeanor compared to the way they were feeling in May, as Rahal stated they left very disappointed, shook to the very core.

“That’s when we decided to make the changes that we made internally. I think we’ve seen the results of that change,” Rahal commented. “We’ve had great events since then. There’s I think a very good vibe within the team. Of course, today helps that immensely. Nothing like winning; right? (….) The response to the disappointment of Indy, and of course, maybe even the bigger disappointment of Detroit, really the response to that is due to their commitment to this organization and to themselves, each of them, and together.

“So yeah, I don’t want to be a pessimistic. I think we have a good chance next weekend to figure in the race. We have a reasonable test out there, but it’s like anything. I don’t think you can count anything for granted. I think you have to go in there and try to do your best every day and see what happens.”

Now they have clicked off their first win together, Rahal believes another win could be around the corner with the work ethic he has seen out of his young driver.

“I think it’s very clear he wants to win, and he puts the effort in that’s needed, whether it’s on or off track. He does great work for Hy-Vee. They ask a lot, and rightfully so, but he is there,” Rahal commented. “Christian gets it. He is a young guy, but he understands. I think this win, all this does is as a driver the first time you win a big race it’s like, okay, wow, I can do that, and I can do it again.

“This whole year Christian has been just a joy to work with because every day when you see Christian, you know you’re going to get 100%, and that to me is what it’s all about.”