Rahal laments championship loss, finds silver lining in solid season
SONOMA, California - It was the best season Graham Rahal has ever had in the Verizon IndyCar Series but the 26-year-old driver from New Albany, Ohio, couldn’t hide the disappointment that he did not win the 2015 championship.
He entered Sunday’s Go Pro Grand Prix of Sonoma just 34 points behind Team Penske’s Juan Pablo Montoya. Rahal and Montoya started next to each other in Row 3 but it was obvious early in the race that Rahal was struggling with his Honda.
He would work his way back into the top 10 but his race was doomed in the closing laps when former teammate Sebastien Bourdais tagged him in the rear. Rahal would finish 18th and drop from second to fourth in the standings.
Rahal was unhappy with Bourdais after the race but by then his championship hopes were already over.
“Bourdais, unfortunately, in recent times, has made a lot of moves like that,” Rahal said. “I don't know what kind of excuse he could possibly come up with, with hitting me in the rear, but I hit the brakes at the 200 mark. It was going to be impossible for him to stop had he gone inside of me, and even if he had gone outside, he wasn't going anywhere, yet he clearly just wasn't even looking. He was obviously just focused right on my gearbox and not where we were on the circuit, and he just drilled me, and around I went. He comes up to me and said he doesn't mean to, but unfortunately that cost us third in the championship.
“I respect him tremendously for who he is and what he's accomplished. But on a day like today, he's a guy you should have high expectations for, and when you see stuff like that, it's pretty disappointing.”
In the overview of the entire weekend, however, Rahal kept his hopes up that he could win the championship. He was closer than he had ever been in his career and knew Montoya was capable of making a rare mistake.
Once the race started, however, Rahal knew he was in for a struggle.
“It was obviously a frustrating day,” Rahal lamented. “The car was just miserable today, just miserable. I don't know why. We've been pretty strong on road and street courses all year, but we found a bad day to be bad.
“But that doesn't overshadow the year we had. I think the year we had was phenomenal. We proved a lot of doubters wrong. We proved to people that we can contend, that this team belongs in the championship hunt, and we'll be back next year. I'm already looking forward ‑ this is obviously not the way we wanted to go out, but all things considered, this year we did a tremendous job.”
It was setting up to be a big day for Rahal. For the first time in his Verizon IndyCar Series career he was a contender for the championship entering the final race of the season. All three of his team owners including his father, three-time CART champion and 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal, TV funnyman David Letterman and Michael Lanigan were at the race.
His fiancée, NHRA Drag Racer Courtney Force, was there along with her father - the legendary NHRA champion John Force.
They were hoping to celebrate a championship but the disappointing outcome did not take away from the best season in Graham Rahal’s career - one that included two victories and a fourth-place finish in the standings.
“I'm very proud of the team and thankful to Steak 'n Shake, D‑A Lubricant, Maxim and all the people that made this possible because they allowed us after the Guard bolted late on us, I think everybody thought we might not be able to get this thing back together and get back racing,” said Rahal, referring to the National Guard’s decision to leave motorsports at the end of last season.
After qualifying sixth, Rahal was dumbfounded as to why his Honda was not up to its usual performance on Sunday. On new Firestone tires, Rahal was able to get good lap times but once the tires degraded so did the cars performance.
“Even in the race today, the rear tires were gone after not even a lap for me at times,” Rahal said. “I just couldn't get them to work. I just could not get the tire to do anything. So unfortunately we were in a bind.”
Young Rahal was unable to join his father as an IndyCar champion but the spectacular season gives Rahal hope to be a challenger in 2016.
“I'm proud of the efforts the team put in, and we have a lot to improve on yet. Obviously our job would be a lot easier if we could qualify at the front more often. Luckily we ended the year with two good qualifying sessions in a row.
“You just never know how these things are going to go, but I think all around we did a great job this season, and I'm proud of these guys.”
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