Background and career
Graham Robert Rahal ( RAY-hawl; born January 4, 1989) is an American racing driver and businessman. He currently races in the IndyCar Series for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, a team partially owned by his father Bobby Rahal, the winner of the 1986 Indianapolis 500.
In 2005, Rahal won the Formula Atlantic class at the SCCA Runoffs and finished fourth in Star Mazda Series standings. After the season concluded, Rahal raced with A1 Team Lebanon for the final three rounds of 2005-06 A1 Grand Prix season. He moved to a full-time ride in the Champ Car Atlantic Series in 2006, where he won five races and finished second in the season standings. He also drove in the Indy Pro Series event on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in conjunction with the 2006 United States Grand Prix and finished second. Rahal would once again jump in A1GP's Team Lebanon car for one race in the second round of the 2006-07 A1 Grand Prix season. SpeedTV reported in August 2006 that Rahal would drive for Newman/Haas Racing in the Champ Car World Series in 2007.
On January 27, 2007, Rahal drove in the 24 Hours of Daytona. One of four drivers of the Southard Motorsports Lexus Riley, the car ran into trouble early and finished 62nd out of seventy entries. On March 18, he drove in the 12 Hours of Sebring American Le Mans Series race for his father's Rahal Letterman Racing team. He drove a Porsche 911 GT3-RSR with two other drivers, finishing sixth in the GT2 class and fifteenth overall.
On March 27, news reports from the previous summer were confirmed. It was announced he would be the second driver for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing in the Champ Car World Series and drove the No. 2 Panoz DP01 sponsored by MEDI|ZONE alongside his teammate, three-time series champion Sébastien Bourdais. On April 8, in his debut in the Champ Car World Series at the Vegas Grand Prix, Rahal hit the wall on the front stretch on the first lap and retired from the race. On April 15 at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, he finished his first Champ Car race, ending up eighth. On April 22, in just his third Champ Car race, he became the youngest ever podium finisher in Champ Car history after finishing second in Houston. Rahal completed his rookie season in fifth place in series points with four podium finishes, but was still without a race win.
With the creation of a single American open-wheel racing series for 2008, Rahal and the Newman/Haas/Lanigan team became part of the IndyCar Series, including Rahal's first Indianapolis 500. Rahal missed the Gainsco Auto Insurance Indy 300 due to a crash in testing, after which his team could not get his car repaired in time for the race. He made his series debut at the second race of the season, the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and despite an early spin in the race, Rahal won the race by 3.5192 seconds from the two-time defending winner of the race, Hélio Castroneves. He became the youngest person at the time to win a major American open-wheel race – aged 19 years, 93 days – and the fourth to win in his first appearance in the IndyCar Series. The best finish Rahal would manage the rest of the year was a pair of eighth place finishes at Watkins Glen and Sonoma; he finished seventeenth in points, fourth among series rookies.
Rahal returned to Newman/Haas/Lanigan for the 2009 IndyCar Series, taking over the No. 02 car with McDonald's as his sponsor. He began the season by taking pole at St. Petersburg, his first in his IndyCar career, thus becoming the youngest ever polesitter at age 20 years, 90 days. This was the first time a Rahal had won an IndyCar pole since his father started first at Toronto in 1992, which was Bobby's third in a row that season. He finished seventh in the race after damaging the car in a first-lap crash. His season was also undermined by bad relations with his teammate Robert Doornbos – when Doornbos left midseason, Rahal commented "We could certainly have a second driver who is more of a team player." He finished the season 7th in points with two podium finishes. Rahal was linked with the US F1 Team, the American-based Formula One team, that was set to debut in the 2010 World Championship. The team's sporting director, Peter Windsor, mentioned Rahal as a potential candidate for a seat with the Charlotte-based outfit. However, Windsor later decided against hiring either Rahal or Marco Andretti due to fears that they would not be able to get their FIA Super Licences in time for the 2010 season. Eventually, the team failed to compete in the 2010 Formula One season, with the team ultimately folding and banned from participating in any FIA-sanctioned championship.
