Graham Rahal

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Graham Rahal
Rahal with his 2007 CCWS car
Nationality	United States
Date of Birth	January 4, 1989 (1989-01-04) (age 19)
Place of Birth	Columbus, Ohio
2008 IRL IndyCar Series
Debut season	2008
Current team	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
Car No.	06
Starts	16
Wins	1
Poles	0
Best finish	17th in 2008
Previous series
2005 2006 2007	Star Mazda Series Champ Car Atlantic Champ Car World Series

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.

Contents 1 Early years 2 2007 3 2008 4 Motorsports Career Results 4.1 American Open Wheel 4.1.1 Champ Car 4.1.1.1 Champ Car Atlantic 4.1.1.2 Champ Car World Series 4.1.2 IndyCar 4.2 Indy 500 results 5 References 6 External links

[edit] 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 Judaic 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^[1]. He attended New Albany school systems in Ohio and graduated in June 2007 with plans to attend Denison University.

[edit] 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^[2] 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.

[edit] 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^[3] 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.

[edit] Motorsports Career Results

[edit] American Open Wheel

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

[edit] Champ Car

[edit] Champ Car Atlantic

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Rank	Points
2006	Conquest	LGH 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

[edit] Champ Car World Series

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

[edit] IndyCar

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 Ret	MIL Ret	TXS 11	IOW 10	RIR Ret	WGL 8	NSH 12	MDO 16	EDM Ret	KTY Ret	SNM 8	DET 13	CHI Ret	SRF2	17th	288

* 2008 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
1	1	16	0	1	0	3	0	0

[edit] Indy 500 results

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team
2008	Dallara	Honda	13th	33rd	Newman/Haas/Lanigan

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Graham Rahal official website
• Graham Rahal career overview
• Graham Rahal career statistics at Driver Database

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