By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter
Oriol Servia will return Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing for the 101st Running of the Indianapolis 500 with hopes of running a full season.
The Pals, Spain native has driven for RLL in the Indy 500 three times (2009, ’14, ’15) with a best finish of 11th in 2014. He also drove three additional races for the team in 2014, with a best finish of seventh at Long Beach and leading seven laps late at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
“I couldn’t be more excited to be back with Bobby (Rahal), Mike (Lanigan) and my second father Mr. (David) Letterman for the 2017 Indy 500,” said Oriol Servia. “We’ve done it before and had some success but both the team and myself are only doing this because we feel we can contend for the win together.”
Servia will be entering his 16th season in Indy Car competition. He has a best finish of second in the standings in 2005 driving for Newman/Haas Racing and a best finish of fourth in the Indianapolis 500 in 2012 with Dreyer and Reinbold Racing.
The goal for the team is to run Servia in a second full-time car alongside Graham Rahal.
Graham Rahal told Motorsports Tribune in November that Servia was his prime choice for a teammate given the chemistry between the two.
Bobby Rahal, team owner of RLL Racing, echoed his son’s thoughts on Servia.
“Oriol is a talented driver who brings value beyond what takes place on the race track,” said Bobby Rahal. “His race craft is that of a veteran, obviously, but more important than that is his ability to develop the race car and as a one car team fighting the multi-car teams the last few years, that is a big benefit. We have a great chemistry at our team and Oriol fits nicely into our program.”
