Rahal Letterman Racing Has Tough Day At Indy 500

Rahal Letterman Racing struggled at Sunday’s Indianapolis 500, like most Honda drivers did. Chevrolets dominated the event taking the top four spots and nine of the top 11 positions. The good news for the race team owned by former racing star Bobby Rahal and late night talk show legend David Letterman is they had the highest placing Honda on the day with Graham Rahal finishing fifth. The team’s other driver, Oriol Servia, was involved in an accident and placed 29th out of 33 starters. The race was won by Juan Pablo Montoya, it is the second time he has won the Indy 500 and got to drink the milk in the winner’s circle.

It has been a busy week for David Letterman. As reported earlier here on Inquisitr Letterman wrapped his run on the Late Show on Wednesday. He had been on late night television for 33 years. Letterman was on hand Sunday to support his drivers and, according to WTOP, co-owner Bobby Rahal expects to see him hanging around more often these days.

“He assured me he would be around the track a lot more. At this stage in his life, he can enjoy himself a little bit and hopefully that means enjoying IndyCar racing.”

Honda’s struggles came as no surprise to anyone who paid attention to the speeds posted at the track all month long. Even Graham Rahal knew finishing well was an uphill climb as the Star Tribune reported.

“Do I think life would have been easier at this race if we had a Chevy? OK, probably, but at the same time, our connection to Honda is far bigger than racing. We believe in them and I hope we can turn this around.”

Honda cars were only able to lead seven of the 200 laps even though they had 17 cars in the field.

Servia’s car carried a Letterman tribute paint job, but that didn’t help any when he got tangled up with Ed Carpenter on lap 112. After the race, Servia analyzed what he thought happened on the Rahal Letterman team’s website.

“I think Ed got a little optimistic. He had a run on me but it was coming too late. I don’t know if he thought I was going to lift or something. It’s a shame; I think we are both smart racers and we usually don’t do those things.”

The Rahal Letterman Racing crew will quickly lick their wounds and then get ready for next week’s unique racing doubleheader, the Dual in Detroit, on May 30 and 31. Who knows maybe David Letterman will make an appearance there as well.

[Image Source: Michael Hickey/Getty Images]