IMSA / Indianapolis – Bobby Rahal : "Our greatest victory as a team"

How important is this victory for you?

Given all the craziness of this week, this may rank as our greatest victory as a team. You know, I'm so pleased for these guys who have done a great job, not just this year but last year and this year. Our relationship with BMW Motorsport, I mean, these people work night and day just as we do as a team to try to get us to this position that we achieved today. I'm just so thrilled for everyone in our team and at BMW Motorsport because it's been, you know -- it's been a tough year in a lot of respects.

Which may seem surprising if you analyse the first season of the M Hybrid V8 last year?

Last year, we had a number of podiums, and I don't know, maybe we thought it's a little easier than it is, and this year, it's been more difficult. And to do it today, none of our competitors really had any problems and yet we were able to succeed.

Do you think this will change things?

This is huge. This is what you really work for. I have to say, I think going into Petit Le Mans, we have to think very positively about that. That's a long race, as this one was. But today, as I said, this may be, outside of my Indy 500 win, personally, my win, this may be the most important win we've had, and because it's just so timely and it just represents all the effort that all of us have put in, these guys, RLL and of course BMW Motorsport. Great day for us.

Given the craziness, to put it mildly, this week, how critical was it to pick up the first 1, 2 on-track win with this car?

Hang on, remember, we had a number of second places last year.

But no podium this year...

I know, but we had numerous podiums last year. Regardless of what happened this week -- I won't go into that. If anybody wants to ask, I won't go into that. But all these guys, us, these young drivers, Motorsport, everybody has worked their butt off to have a day like today. And we've had where we qualified well and just in the race, didn't quite work out. For our team, and I think everybody in Munich and for everybody in Zionsville who works day-in and day-out on this program, this is huge for us. 

Can we talk about relief?

I don't want to say retribution, but this is reward for all of the effort that everybody has put in. And so I'm so happy. I'm so happy for these guys, for our team, for the people in Munich who bust their butts for this program. I'm really, you know, I couldn't be happier. Yes, I'm happy for us. I'm happy for me. Happy for us. But I'm really happy for the whole group. Because I, frankly, think we've worked hard and we earned it, and today was a great day for us.

What do you think made this weekend be what it is considering you guys have had a lot of unlucky breaks over the course of the year and everything sort of just came together?

Well, I mean, I think everybody works hard. I spoke to the guys in practice and, you know, Philipp said to me, The car is really good over the long run. So he may not have had the one-lap pace or whatever, and that made me feel good because obviously that's pretty important. As I said, we just came back from a test at Road Atlanta, right, guys, and found some things there. The amount of work that our team, our drivers, our associates at Motorsport have put in is phenomenal. It's tough.

Was there any communication from the pit stand toward the end about the racing and the closeness of the combat between the two cars?

I have to say, these guys know about rule No. 2 at RLL, which is don't take your teammate out. Although I have to say, when you pass on the pit exit, pass, I think it was, Philipp, I go, Oh, boy, I'm going to hear about this. And then when Philipp passed -- went to the lead, I said, Okay, it's all evened out. I'm not going to have to deal with this. No, they drove as professionals, they really did. I don't know if anybody said, hey, do this or do that or don't do this or don't do that. But they are professionals. Today we really saw the best of this group today, these drivers who are super competitive, super smart. And, yeah, it was just a thrill to watch them do their thing.

If Rule No. 2 is don't hit your teammate, what's Rule No. 1?

I can't tell you.