Team preseason profile: 'We have to win races'

By Dave Lewandowski | Published: Feb 16, 2014

Graham Rahal

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

The cast: Driver – Graham Rahal. Chief engineer – Bill Pappas. Race strategist – Bob Rahal.

Twitter: @GrahamRahal, @RLLracing

The car: Honda-powered No. 15

Snapshot: This will be the second full season that Graham Rahal, 25, will drive for the team co-owned by his father. … Rahal became the youngest winner in major auto racing history when he drove to victory in his first IndyCar Series race at the 2008 event at age 19.  The following season he became the youngest pole winner at the same event – both while driving for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, a team co-owned by Mike Lanigan at the time. … The National Guard will be the primary sponsor of the car for 2014. … Pappas was the race engineer for Juan Pablo Montoya’s program in 2000, when he won the Indianapolis 500 in addition to three CART races. … RLL Racing enters its 23rd year of Indy car racing. … The season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will be Rahal’s 111th Indy car start.

The stats: Rahal recorded a pair of top-five finishes (high of second after starting 11th at Long Beach) in a 2013 season in which he finished a career-low 18th in the championship standings. … He had an average starting position of 17.7 (best qualifying of eighth at Sonoma) and an average finish of 14.7. He was running at the finish in 16 of the 19 races.

The gist: Rahal credits Pappas for quickly identifying items that disadvantaged the No. 15 car last season, and in early testing they’ve taken measures to potentially rectify issues. “We found a lot of stuff. When I jumped in the car for the first time with Bill as the engineer, the car didn’t even feel like I was driving an IndyCar. It felt totally different than I was used to,” Rahal reports.  … Rahal is next scheduled to test March 3 at Barber Motorsports Park two weeks ahead of the Open Test on the road course.

He said it: “I expect great things from our team and our organization, and I did too last year. The keys to our year are to make sure all our personnel understand what the ultimate goal is. We’ve got to win races.”