Graham Rahal

Infobox racing driver
name = Graham Rahal

---

pixels =
caption = Rahal with his 2007 CCWS car
nationality = USA
date of birth = Birth date and age|1989|1|4
place of birth = Columbus, Ohio
related to =
current series = IRL IndyCar Series
first year = 2008
current team = Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
car number = 06
former teams =
starts = 16
wins = 1
poles = 0
fastest laps =
best finish = 17th
year = 2008
prev series = Champ Car Atlantic
Champ Car World Series
IndyCar Series
prev series years = 2006
2007
2008
titles =
title years =
awards =
award years =

Graham Rahal (born January 4, 1989 in Columbus, Ohio) is an American race car driver. He currently drives in the Indy Racing League Indy Car Series. He is the son of 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal and has stated that his ultimate goal is to race in Formula One.

Early years

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. SpeedTV reported in August 2006 that Graham would drive for Newman/Haas Racing in the Champ Car World Series in 2007 [Miller, Robin, [http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/champcar/30855/ Graham Rahal Set for Newman/Haas Ride in '07] , SpeedTV.com, August 13, 2006] . He attended New Albany school systems in Ohio and graduated in June 2007 with plans to attend Denison University.

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.

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 [ [http://www.champcarworldseries.com/News/Article.asp?ID=11364 GRAHAM RAHAL TO DRIVE THE NO. 2 MEDI | ZONE RACE CAR FOR NEWMAN/HAAS/ LANIGAN RACING IN THE 2007 CHAMP CAR WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP] , CCWS press release, March 29, 2007] 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 22nd, 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 are racing in 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 [Cavin, Curt. [http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080406/SPORTS0107/80406006 Rahal's victory sets open-wheel record] , "Indianapolis Star", April 6, 2008] and the fourth to win in his first appearance in the IndyCar Series.

Motorsports Career Results

American Open Wheel

() (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Champ Car

Champ Car Atlantic

: "* 2008 season in progress": "¹ Run on same day.": "² Non-points-paying exhibition race."

Indy 500 results

References

External links

* [http://www.grahamrahal.com/ Graham Rahal official website]
* [http://www.champcarusa.com/graham_rahal.html Graham Rahal career overview]
* [http://www.driverdb.com/racingdriver2919.html Graham Rahal career statistics] at Driver Database