Honda needed 45 seconds to approve Graham Rahal racing a Chevrolet in the Indy 500

INDIANAPOLIS – The initial approval from Honda Performance Development for Graham Rahal to race a Chevy in the 107th Indy 500 took less than a minute.

“I got asked and said it was OK,” HPD president and technical director David Salters told NBC Sports in a Thursday interview at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “So it was pretty easy.”

After being bumped from the Indy 500 by teammate Jack Harvey in a tense Last Chance Qualifying session Sunday, Rahal surprisingly re-entered the field two days later when he replaced Stefan Wilson (who was ruled out with a fractured vertebrae after a practice crash Monday with Katherine Legge, Rahal’s teammate).

When first contacted by Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports about driving the No. 24 Chevrolet, Rahal was skeptical as a Honda driver for all 249 starts during his 15 seasons in the NTT IndyCar Series. In a Tuesday news conference, he characterized crossing manufacturer lines as “massive” hurdles and initially told co-owner Dennis Reinbold, “I don’t want to waste your time.”

But Rahal was stunned by how quickly his father, Bobby, worked out a deal with Reinbold and the blessing of Honda and Chevy.

Salters said Honda considered the big picture when approving the unusual arrangement.

“This is still a sport, and you have athletes competing,” Salters said. “If we can help an athlete compete at the highest level and Graham has been part of the family. If we can help Graham, good. If we can help the sport, good. We want to see 33 cars on the grid.

“So after that, it was a pretty easy, grown-up decision. Let’s just look after the sport. When you watch the Indy 500, particularly if you come here, it’s incredibly special. There’s nothing quite like it. I’ve done a lot of racing, luckily.