Rahal is a name that is synonymous with racing.  Bobby Rahal is one of the most famous American drivers of all-time finishing with 24 Champ Car wins including an unforgettable 1986 year taking six checkered flags including his only wins at the Indy 500 and the Toronto Indy.  These days, the racing torch has been passed to his son Graham, who currently competes in the IZOD IndyCar Series.  

Graham is no stranger to the track being around it since childhood and later competing in the now-defunct Champ Car and current IndyCar series for the past five seasons.  If you’re looking for an up-and-coming American superstar – look no further than the young, charismatic, and energetic Graham Rahal.  At only 23 years of age, Graham is living his racing dream for arguably the best racing team over the past decade in Chip Ganassi Racing.

This season has brought about many changes to IndyCar including the new DW12 car coupled with an engine battle between Honda, Chevy, and (technically we can still say) Lotus.  None of these changes have phased Graham, who’s confident that his #38 Service Central sponsored car and team are ready to challenge the front-runners during each race, well at least the street/road courses.

I had a chance to sit down and talk with the young star before the 26th running of the Honda Indy Toronto on his earliest memories of racing as a child, the dynamics of Chip Ganassi Racing and his relationship with his three teammates, the challenging track of Toronto, and of course, his collection of personal cars.

DM - When you hear the Rahal name, you think racing- what was your earliest memory of racing?

GR - I’m asked that question often and it’s a hard one to answer.  I’ve always been around a race track as a kid – for me a race track is being at home.

I spent a lot of time at the Mid-Ohio and Cleveland race tracks as those two were close to where I live.  But my first driving experience was at five years old where I did a couple of laps at Circleville Raceway just outside of Columbus, Ohio.

DM - Let me go a little further in your life, when did you know you would be a race car driver?

GR - When I was 3-4 years, there’s a video of me at a bowling alley saying I want to be a race car driver.  That’s always what I wanted to be and I’m fortunate that I am.  I don’t think I’m that good at anything else.

DM - Do you feel added pressure to win, because you are Bobby Rahal’s son?

GR -There’s added pressure, there’s no doubt about it! You fight it and I always will.  No matter what success I achieve, you’re always going to be son of…

DM - You’ve had a good history at Newman/Haas Racing, bounced around a bit in 2010, are you happy to be a part of Chip Ganassi Racing for the past two seasons?

GR - I’m fortunate to be here.  Certainly I’ve been with some great teams in my young career.  In 2009 with Newman/Haas, I truly felt we were on the cusp of greatness.  We could have won a lot of races if I was driving like I am today.  We would have at least been in the hunt for the championship.  It really felt like we were looking to be one of the most promising teams and unfortunately things fell apart for 2010.  

Fast forward to now, I’m with another great team and Chip’s support means a lot. We’ve had fights and battles like all teams, but I hope I’m here for many years to come.

DM - For stretches last year, you were really competitive and challenging in most races, how close is the #38 car in reaching its first podium? 

GR - This year has been even better than last year.  At the start of the year, we were competing in the top five every race.  At St. Pete’s we had bad strategy and moved back to 12th; at Barber we got the result finishing 4th; at Long Beach we had a competitive car and we got into it with Marco [Andretti]; finally in Brazil, we were running up at 3rd in front when there was contact in front of me and I had to go straight through the run-off and lost 12 spots.  Bad luck has contributed to poor results and we’ve had so many of these instances that have built-up against us that people don’t realize.  Yet we are still 10th in points and on a streak of three top-tens in a row.  

The speed has been better this year – it just doesn’t show.

In terms of confidence level at the end of last year I felt pretty good.  In Baltimore, we were neck-to-neck with Will [Power] and we were the class of the field by a mile, but again bad pit strategy landed us around 10th. 

This year, I like the car a lot.  It seems to suit my style and in pre-season testing we were really fast and we have struggled slightly to re-gain that form.  I feel happy that we are back on the street courses starting here in Toronto as it suits are style for whatever reason over the ovals.

DM - Considering you don’t feel your car is suited to ovals you were definitely in contention in Texas – what happened?

GR - If you would have asked me two re-starts from the end if we would have been challenging for the win, I would have said no.  We were positioned in sixth on that last re-start  and I just thought we are either going to crash and burn or win this thing.  I drove it hard and I was hanging on – there were five other instances during that race that I thought we lost, there were many big saves.  Unfortunately, I made a mistake at the end and I’m still in amazement that I hit that wall.  I truly didn’t think I was that close.  

If I didn’t hit the wall – Justin [Wilson] wouldn’t have been able to pass me.  

DM - In IndyCar or any circuit, it’s hard to win.  You won your first IndyCar race back in 2009 at St. Pete’s and you came so close to winning your second at Texas, how frustrating does that feel?

GR - I hope that’s not the closest I’ll ever come to winning again.  But I’ve put Texas behind me and I haven’t thought about it for a while.  We finished second; it was a great result for the team and for the standings.

I feel that there were other places this year, where if breaks went our way, such as Detroit, we would have won as well.  I feel that I’m driving well and I remain positive and hopeful that if I keep this up we will have another win coming soon.  We just have to find a way as a team to be better, especially on the oval tracks.

DM - Let’s talk about the Chip Ganassi team – you have four cars, but there have been some issues in the past that it’s separated into two separate groups?  How’s your relationship with Dario [Franchitti] and Scott [Dixon] as well as Charlie [Kimball]?

GR - Last year in Toronto in particular there was some built-up anger over a certain situation.  Ultimately, it was taken out on me, which was not deserved and I believe they would agree with that statement today. 

Right now, we don’t have any issues and we’re working well as a team and it’s getting better.  However, it’s tough to have four cars and find a way for communication to work smoothly out of two different shops.  It’s a difficult group to balance considering the amount of engineers, mechanics, and personalities.

In terms of strategy, Charlie and I do our own thing. We get an idea of where Dario and Scott are going to be on race day and vice versa.

DM - So is it a team within a team or one big unit?

GR - On a race weekend or when we’re back at home working on the cars, we operate as two different teams.  Charlie and I debrief and we share data and set-ups.  On the flip-side there engineers are not working on my car, so the whole group doesn’t need to come together on that.  It’s not the same as Andretti Autosport, where all three cars are built in the same shop – we have two separate shops.

DM - I look at a team like Newman/Haas last year with a rookie in James Hinchcliffe and a veteran in Oriol Servia.  James learned a lot from Oriol which helped him mightily throughout the year.  You and Charlie are both fairly young – does that help or hinder the development of the team?

GR - At Ganassi, we get to see Dario and Scott’s data and of course and if I have any questions I ask them.  Does that make it easy? No. 

I was a teammate of Oriol’s for just the last three races in 2009 and I learned more from him in three races than from all I learned leading up to that point.

Dario and Scott have won several Indy 500s and are two of the best drivers in IndyCar and around the world.  They have two different styles and my style is more similar to Scott, but I’ve learned a lot from the both of them.  I’ve learned a lot on how to put a lap together or make a race last for the whole distance, and how to avoid mistakes throughout each race.

We are young, but Charlie and I have come along the way.  He has a good understanding of the sport through Indy Lights and racing in Europe.  We work awfully hard to find an edge to compete against the Target boys next door. 

DM - Switching gears to Toronto, why is this race known for being the most challenging tracks?

GR - To me the surface changes and the bumps are the most challenging aspects of Toronto.  They re-paved lakeshore, but then on Turn 3 it goes back to concrete which causes fits for the car.  To go fast at Toronto you feel on edge – it’s a track that takes a lot of effort and you have to be strong to do well.  

I love coming here though – some great memories and some bad ones.  Being on pole during my time in Champ Car Atlantic back in 2006 was a great memory and I was running in third last year until I was taken out of the race with just a few laps left.

DM -Talk about the city of Toronto and their fans.

GR - The fans make this race what it is. The fans have a passion and love for open-wheel racing and they’re knowledgeable about it.  We go to many places throughout North America and many fans are excited, but they might not know about the cars and drivers as they do in Toronto or especially Indianapolis.

I much rather go to the crappiest race track in the world and have 100,000 fans cheering than go to the greatest race track and have nobody there.  The fans make the event! Ultimately, they're the ones that keep me employed, as fans produce sponsors.

DM - Last question, I’ve heard that you have a great car collection.  What’s in your garage and are you close to having the best collection amongst the other drivers?

GR - [Big laugh] I definitely don’t have the best collection – that belongs to Dario or [Tony] Kanaan. It’s really the three of us that are the car nuts of the group who happily buy new cars.  

I’ve got a 2005 Porsche Carrera GT that I love the most.  It’s the greatest road car ever and that’s why I had to buy it. I have it more as an investment than anything else.  I actually just sold both of my McLaren MP4-12C’s, as I just bought a bigger home and I’m trying to be more responsible.  So you are asking this question at the wrong time.

Currently, I have 5-6 unique cars, but I’m always buying and selling.  My collection includes a 1964 MINI S that I re-stored myself and a 1969 Fiat 500 that needs a lot of attention, but I still love it.  

Cars are my passion, so if I’m not on the race track or working at the shop – I’m probably doing something with cars. 

The Rahall’s have always been collectors of cars and own a lot of dealerships.  We also have a car barn where we store a lot of our cars including my dad’s collection of Porsches and Ferraris, my brother’s muscle cars, and I seem to be more into modern vehicles.