Rahal Letterman back Dallara switch

RLR have become the final team in the IRL to switch to the Italian manufacturer's equipment, meaning the series is now effectively a one-make formula on ovals.

The team say they made the decision to switch brands following April's Japanese race, when Jeff Simmons' practice crash wrote off his Panoz. Needing to replace the chassis, team management opted to purchase Dallaras instead. Dallaras have won 20 of the last 23 IRL races.

Bobby Rahal told Autosport back in March that he wanted a rules break for the Panoz chassis because of the lack of downforce it had, which made the car not as driveable in traffic.

However, that break was not forthcoming, prompting the team to replace their chassis with Dallaras.

Buddy Rice, Danica Patrick and Jeff Simmons were 14th, 15th and 16th in today's qualifying session respectively, however, they believe the switch will ultimately improve their race pace.

"I have never driven anything in IndyCar but a Panoz, so today was a learning experience," said Patrick. "The problem we always had with a Panoz was a lack of grip. That isn't the case now. The Dallara has too much grip so we have to find ways of freeing the car up and getting it to go faster.

"If we wanted to qualify up front every time we would have stuck with the Panoz chassis. This change is about the how the car performs in races and the Dallara will be a better race car than the Panoz."

Rice echoed Patrick's sentiments.

"Coming here with new cars isn't the most ideal situation," said Rice. "But we had to do what we thought was best.

"They bit the bullet and spent the money to get us new Dallara chassis for this race. We think we can get a car for the race that will be competitive. This track isn't one that is demanding on a precise setup. There is a lot of draft and positioning yourself for the end. I think we can learn a little more on Friday and dial the cars in for Saturday night."

Ray Leto, the team's general manager, reckons the team already have plenty of data on the chassis to make it work effectively.

"We ran the Dallara chassis in 2002 at Indy and in 2003 with Kenny Brack and we have data from that season.," said Leto. "We have run this car in this mechanical form before. All of our engineers here have experience with the Dallara chassis.

"We have been able to amass plenty of information from Dallara and we have picked up some tips from some of the other teams, but it will still be a challenge.

"At least now we are on even footing with everybody, but it doesn't guarantee that we move up the grid at all. It just means it will be easier to compare ourselves with the other teams."