Indy 500-winning team owner says win 'indescribable', like a 'first child'

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing IndyCar team owner Mike Lanigan said that winning the Indy 500 for the first time was indescribable and could only be compared to having a first child.

After trying for 28 years, Mike Lanigan can finally call himself an Indy 500 winner. Lanigan, who has been a partner in the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing IndyCar team since 2011, finally won the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” back in August with Takuma Sato, now a two-time winner of the race, behind the wheel of the #30 Honda.

“Back in 1974, I moved out to Indianapolis to start a crane distribution company for my father,” Lanigan told Beyond the Flag. “Myself and my wife moved out there and the first year I was there, I went to the Indianapolis 500.

“That’s when the bug started. I have been to 46 or 47 of them now in a row, and we started sponsoring cars in ‘92, and back about ‘97 we started our own race team called Mi-Jack Conquest Racing, and then in ‘04-ish, Paul Newman asked me to join his team called Newman/Haas Racing, which I invested in and it was since called Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing.

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“And then Paul died in ‘08 and I pretty much got out of that business, and Bobby Rahal, at the time, in ‘09 when I had what they called an Atlantic racing team, which is like the triple-A baseball team for IndyCar, and I hired his son Graham to drive for me, and after a year’s relationship with Bobby, he asked me to join him as an investor and we’ve had a great relationship ever since.”

Sato was leading the race late ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon and teammate Graham Rahal, the son of team co-owner Bobby Rahal, when Spencer Pigot, driving for the same team through a partnership with Citrone/Buhl Autosport, was involved in a heavy one-car wreck coming off of turn four of the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in Speedway, Indiana.

As a result of the fact that there were only five laps to go, the 104th running of the Indy 500 became the first Indy 500 to end under caution since 2013.

Lanigan did not initially think this would be the case; he thought the race would end up being restarted. He was admittedly fine with the way it ended, but he didn’t see a scenario that would have resulted in Dixon or Rahal challenging Sato even had a restart transpired.

“Yes. I did [think a restart was coming]. But quite frankly, I don’t think anybody would have, even with a restart, I don’t think anybody would have caught, either Dixon or Graham, would have caught him on a restart. Takuma’s car was on rails at the time.

“During the race, we were very fortunate enough to improve both Graham’s and Takuma’s cars as the race went on, and of course you want the car to be perfect at the end. We were doing 221’s at the end before the yellow went out with the accident that Spencer had. It didn’t bother me one bit to close the race under yellow quite frankly!”

Lanigan described winning the race for the first time, something Bobby Rahal and David Letterman had both already experienced it back in 2004 when Buddy Rice won it driving for Rahal Letterman Racing, as something “indescribable” that could only be compared to having a “first child”.

“After 28 years of trying to win it competitively from ‘92 on, every year you anticipate to win it, and of course it never happened,” he stated. “We had very close chances of winning, and some bad luck. It was, it’s actually indescribable. It’s like, the only way I can explain it is a first child, the enjoyment you get. It ensures your relationship with your bride, and it stays with you for a long time. It took a while to get it, but it’s going to stay for a long time, and we finally made it to the top…it’s pretty exciting.”

Sato himself had been one of the team’s “close chances” in the past. He came one lap away from winning the race for the team back in 2012, when he attempted a pass on race leader Dario Franchitti in the first turn on the final lap that ultimately resulted in a crash, while Franchitti went on to win the race for a third time under caution.

Sato, however, was able to redeem himself in 2017 driving for Andretti Autosport. But he knew he still owed Lanigan a win.

“In 2017, he was driving for another team,” Lanigan continued. “He came back to our team in 2018. Him and me had an ongoing joke going on he owes me a win. Of course in 2012 when he drove for us, it was the last lap, first-turn and what happened was Dario Franchitti, who won the race, kind of pushed him down under the white line, and Takuma lost it. That was the end of that.

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“But you can never blame a driver for giving it everything he’s got. And Takuma always gives 100%. It’s hard to say anything negative about a driver in this series that risks his life for the win, and I never did have a problem with it. Unfortunately, the last lap of the Indy 500, there ain’t no rules. And he gave it a shot and just didn’t succeed, but last year he came in third and this year we won it and everything’s good, everything’s wonderful.”

Indy 500-winning team owner says win ‘indescribable’, like a ‘first child’

By Asher Fair | Sep 28, 2020

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing IndyCar team owner Mike Lanigan said that winning the Indy 500 for the first time was indescribable and could only be compared to having a first child.