Graham Rahal stood in the back of Union 50, a favorite Indianapolis restaurant he frequents with his wife, Courtney Force, and expressed appreciation for how a tight-knit racing group intricately involved in the Verizon IndyCar Series savored the opportunity to celebrate at the recent Victory Lap Celebration honoring series champions Scott Dixon and Chip Ganassi Racing.
The upbeat atmosphere inspired the 29-year-old Rahal to offer big-picture perspectives.
“People follow me on social media and they see my toys,” he said. “But all I really want to do, somehow in my life, is leave this sport better than when I entered it. Obviously, I need to win more races and win championships to do that.
"What’s exciting for me is I see this series headed in the right direction. I’m not saying I did that. I didn’t do that. But it’s fun to be a part of that. It was one of my life-long dreams.”
The driver of the No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda accentuated positives even after a season in which he didn’t win a race for the first time since 2014 and finished eighth in the points, his worst standing in four years.
That’s because Rahal is part of a generation of competitive Indy car racing that he believes will be remembered years from now as the best.
“Everybody here is awesome. It’s definitely a great group of drivers,” he said. “I think when you sit back and look 20 years from now at the guys who are here now …”
Rahal then listed the best of the best.
“Ryan Hunter-Reay has accomplished a lot, an Indianapolis 500 and won a championship and won a lot of races,” he said. “Sebastien Bourdais, spectacular career, hasn’t gotten an Indy 500 yet, but he’ll probably have a lot more chances. You look at Scott Dixon, you look at Will Power, you look at Josef Newgarden, you look at Simon Pagenaud, this is a special crop of guys.
“I’ve won six (career) races and it’s not enough, but I take a lot of pride in that because I know I’m competing against some of the best ever. This isn’t like 20 years ago, where the top-five guys were really good but beyond that it was a little bit of a struggle. Twenty guys are really good now. To win any race is pretty special.”
Rahal also was quite candid about his season, blaming himself for mistakes that proved costly in the points but also conceding that some setbacks were beyond anyone’s control. He started off with a second-place finish at the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, but that ended up being his best result. The highest he finished after that was a pair of fifths.
Rahal’s season-ending INDYCAR Grand Prix of Sonoma, a double-points race, was a microcosm of that misfortune. After running as high as fifth, his battery exploded and ended his day.
But, as is his nature, Rahal didn’t dwell on negatives. He prefers to stay positive.
“I’m disappointed, but my intentions have turned to next year completely,” he said. “I’ve been working hard with my engineer and my team. Nothing is going to change for us. We’re very fortunate with the sponsors we have, partners like United Rentals, Total S.A., Fifth Third Bank, One Cure. Now we can turn our attention to 2019, keep the same group, keep working on everything. Our guys made huge strides with pit stops this year. That was probably the highlight of my year, seeing their work.”
And added to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing for next season will be Allen McDonald, one of the most decorated engineers in the INDYCAR paddock. McDonald will be the team’s senior development engineer. McDonald won the Indianapolis 500 and INDYCAR championship with Dario Franchitti in 2007, helped Hunter-Reay to the series championship in 2012, won the 2011 500 with Dan Wheldon and has won the pole at Indy with Alex Tagliani, James Hinchcliffe and Ed Carpenter. He figures to add to a strong engineer program that includes Tom German (Rahal’s car) and Eddie Jones (Takuma Sato’s car).
Sato’s season included a race win at Portland International Raceway.
Rahal is convinced his best accomplishments are yet to come.
“I love sitting here celebrating a legend like Scott Dixon, but I don’t really love celebrating anybody,” he said. “I’d like it to be us, my team, my sponsors, my dad (Bobby). We’re definitely pretty eager to get it going again.”