Graham Rahal

Graham Rahal
Rahal at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May 2010.
Nationality	American
Born	January 4, 1989 (1989-01-04) Columbus, Ohio
2012 IZOD IndyCar Series
Debut season	2007
Current team	Chip Ganassi Racing
Car no.	38
Former teams	Newman/Haas Racing Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Rahal Letterman Racing Sarah Fisher Racing Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
Starts	44
Wins	1
Poles	2
Best finish	8th in 2009
Previous series
2007 2006 2005	Champ Car World Series Champ Car Atlantic Star Mazda Championship
Awards
2011	24 Hours of Daytona winner

Graham Rahal (born January 4, 1989 in Columbus, Ohio) is an American race car driver. He currently participates in the IZOD IndyCar Series. He is the son of 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal.

Racing Career

Early racing

In 2005, he won the Formula Atlantic class at the SCCA Runoffs and finished fourth in Star Mazda Series standings. He drove in the last two rounds of the 2005–2006 A1 Grand Prix season for A1 Team Lebanon as he is of Lebanese descent. 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 United States Grand Prix and finished second. SpeedTV reported in August 2006 that Graham would drive for Newman/Haas Racing in the Champ Car World Series in 2007.

2007

On January 27 Rahal drove in the 24 Hours of Daytona. One of four drivers of the Southard Motorsports Lexus Riley, the car ran into early troubles and finished 62nd out of 70 entries. On March 18, he drove in the 12 Hours of Sebring American LeMans Series race for his father's Rahal Letterman Racing team. He drove a Porsche 911 GT3-RSR with two other drivers, finishing 6th in the GT2 class and 15th overall.

Rahal posing with a show car when he raced in Champ Car in 2007

On March 27 news reports from the previous summer were finally confirmed when he was announced as the second driver for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing in the Champ Car World Series and drove the #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. He was knocked out of the race. On April 15 at Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach he finished his first Champ Car race, ending up 8th.

On April 22, in just his 3rd Champ Car race, he became the youngest ever podium finisher in Champ Car history after finishing 2nd in Houston. Rahal completed his rookie season in 5th place in series points with four podium finishes but without a race win.

2008

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.

He 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 two-time defending winner of the race, Hélio Castroneves. He is currently the youngest person to win a major American open wheel race 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 8th places at Watkins Glen and Infineon and he finished 17th in points, 4th among series rookies.

2009

Rahal returned to Newman/Haas/Lanigan for the 2009 IndyCar Series season, taking over the #02 car with Mc Donald's as his sponsor. He began the season by taking pole position at St. Petersburg, his first in his IndyCar career and the youngest ever polesitter at 20 years and 90 days old. 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 after damaging the car in a first lap clash. His season was also undermined by bad relations with his team-mate Robert Doornbos – when the Dutchman 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 USF1, the American based Formula One team set to debut in the 2010 World Championship. The team's sporting director, Peter Windsor, has 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 they may not be able to get their F1 Superlicenses in time for the 2010 season. Eventually, the team failed to answer the bell for the 2010 Formula One season.

2010

Graham Rahal did not return to Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing for the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series season, due to McDonald's discontinuing their sponsorship to focus on the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

On March 10, 2010, Sarah Fisher Racing announced Rahal would pilot Fisher's #67 Dollar General car in the first two North American events of 2010, the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. Sarah Fisher was originally planning on driving the races herself (in addition to seven ovals) before deciding that putting Rahal in the car could be a benefit to everyone, including her sponsor Dollar General, whose home office is in Goodlettsville, Tennessee (near the Alabama track). On April 6, 2010, Sarah Fisher Racing announced they will be adding the Grand Prix of Long Beach to Rahal's schedule. Rahal's placing in those three races were ninth, 17th, and 22nd (retired) respectively.

After the Grand Prix of Long Beach, Rahal was signed to drive for his father's team, Rahal Letterman Racing, in the 2010 Indianapolis 500. Graham qualified in the seventh position for the race, and finished 12th.

On June 10, 2010, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing announced the signing of Rahal for the Iowa Corn Indy 250 at Iowa Speedway, filling in for the injured Mike Conway in the #24 entry. It was his only start for the team.

Rahal returned to Newman/Haas Racing for 6 of the remaining 8 races of the 2010 season, starting with Toronto and returned to Sarah Fisher Racing for the Kentucky Speedway race. Rahal's 2010 totals include 12 starts for four different teams and a 20th place finish in points.

On October 10, 2010, Rahal finished runner-up at the RoboPong 200 all-star kart event at the New Castle Motorsports Park with teammate Conor Daly.

2011

Rahal has signed to drive the #38 car for Chip Ganassi Racing with Service Central sponsorship beginning in 2011 as the team will expand from two to four cars.

Rahal, co-drove the No. 01 TELMEX/Target Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates car to victory in the Rolex 24 At Daytona along with Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas, and Joey Hand. It came 30 years after his father, Bobby, along with Brian Remond and Bob Garretson won the race.

Personal life

Rahal attended New Albany school systems in Ohio and graduated in June 2007 with plans to attend Denison University.

Motorsports career results

Career summary

Season	Series	Team Name	Races	Poles	Wins	Points	Final Placing
2004	Formula BMW USA	Vitesse Farm Racing	14	0	0	63	7th
2005	Star Mazda Series	Bobby Rahal Automotive Group	12	0	1	370	4th
2005–06	A1 Grand Prix	A1 Team Lebanon	6	0	0	6	23rd
2006	Champ Car Atlantic	Conquest Racing	12	0	5	242	2nd
	Indy Pro Series	Kenn Hardley Racing	1	1	0	43	28th
2007	Champ Car World Series	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	14	0	0	243	5th
2008	IndyCar Series	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	19	0	1	288	17th
2009	IndyCar Series	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	17	2	0	385	8th
2010	IndyCar Series	Sarah Fisher Racing	4	0	0	235	20th
		Rahal Letterman Racing	1	0	0
		Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	1	0	0
		Newman/Haas Racing	6	0	0
2011	IndyCar Series	Chip Ganassi Racing	18	0	0	320	9th

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	DC	Points
2005–06	Lebanon	GBR SPR	GBR FEA	GER SPR	GER FEA	POR SPR	POR FEA	AUS SPR	AUS FEA	MYS SPR	MYS FEA	UAE SPR	UAE FEA	RSA SPR	RSA FEA	IDN SPR	IDN FEA	MEX SPR 13	MEX FEA 14	USA SPR Ret	USA FEA Ret	CHN SPR 18	CHN FEA 11	23rd	0
2006–07		NED SPR	NED FEA	CZE SPR 12	CZE FEA 12	CHN SPR	CHN FEA	MYS SPR	MYS FEA	IDN SPR	IDN FEA	NZL SPR	NZL FEA	AUS SPR	AUS FEA	RSA SPR	RSA FEA	MEX SPR	MEX FEA	CHN SPR	CHN FEA	GBR SPR	GBR SPR	23rd	0

American open–wheel racing results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest race lap)

Champ Car Atlantic

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Rank	Points
2006	Mi-Jack Conquest Racing	LBH 5	HOU 15	MTY 1	POR Ret	CLE1 1	CLE2 1	TOR Ret	EDM 2	SJO 12	DEN 1	MTL 1	ROA Ret	2nd	242

Indy Lights

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Rank	Points
2006	Kenn Hardley Racing	HMS	STP1	STP2	INDY	WGL	IMS 2	NSH	MIL	KTY	SNM1	SNM2	CHI	28th	43

Champ Car

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Rank	Points
2007	N/H/L Racing	LVG Ret	LBH 8	HOU 2	POR 9	CLE 8	MTT 7	TOR Ret	EDM 3	SJO 6	ROA 3	ZOL 3	ASN 9	SRF 11	MXC 4	5th	243

IndyCar Series

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2008	N/H/L Racing	HMS Wth	STP 1	MOT1 DNP	LBH1 13	KAN 12	INDY 33	MIL 25	TXS 11	IOW 10	RIR 18	WGL 8	NSH 12	MDO 16	EDM 26	KTY 25	SNM 8	DET 13	CHI 19	SRF2 9	17th	288
2009	N/H/L Racing	STP 7	LBH 12	KAN 7	INDY 31	MIL 4	TXS 22	IOW 11	RIR 3	WGL 13	TOR 20	EDM 7	KTY 5	MDO 8	SNM 21	CHI 5	MOT 3	HMS 11			7th	385
2010	Sarah Fisher Racing	SAO	STP 9	ALA 17	LBH 22	KAN										KTY 20					20th	235
	Rahal Letterman Racing						INDY 12	TXS
	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing								IOW 9	WGL
	Newman/Haas Racing										TOR 5	EDM	MDO 20	SNM 9	CHI 10		MOT 8	HMS 10
2011	Chip Ganassi Racing	STP 17	ALA 18	LBH 13	SAO 2	INDY 3	TXS1 9	TXS2 30	MIL 2	IOW 15	TOR 13	EDM 25	MDO 24	NHM 26	SNM 8	BAL 10	MOT 12	KTY 12	LVS		9th*	320*

* 2011 season in progress.

¹ Run on same day.

² Non-points-paying, exhibition race.

Years	Teams	Races	Poles	Wins	Podiums (Non-win)	Top 10s (Non-podium)	Indianapolis 500 Wins	Championships
4	6	62	2	1	5	20	0	0

** Podium (Non-win) indicates 2nd or 3rd place finishes.

*** Top 10s (Non-podium) indicates 4th through 10th place finishes.

Indianapolis 500

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team
2008	Dallara	Honda	13	33	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
2009	Dallara	Honda	4	31	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
2010	Dallara	Honda	7	12	Rahal Letterman Racing
2011	Dallara	Honda	30	3	Chip Ganassi Racing

External links

• Graham Rahal official website
• IndyCar Driver Page
• Graham Rahal Un-official Fan Zone
• Graham Rahal career overview
• Graham Rahal career statistics at Driver Database
• IndyCar 11 in '11 video