Long Pond PA – Before the race at Pocono International Raceway, on Sunday morning in the bright sunshine and with wafting white clouds above, INDYCAR driver Graham Rahal sped on his mo-ped from garage to trailer with a concerned look on his face.
Rahal, enjoying the best year of his racing career, was still in the hunt for the 2015 INDYCAR championship. He overcame a decidedly overmatched Honda effort against the front-running Chevrolet competitors to (surprisingly) become the Japanese manufacturer’s lead team and driver combination, often placing higher and qualifying better than any other Honda-powered outfit on the tarmac.
In the penultimate race of the season, and against all odds considering he is a single-car entry against super-teams from Andretti, Ganassi and Penske, Rahal had a chance—not a hope, but a bona fide chance—to catch points leader Juan Pablo Montoya.
With just as many wins (two) on the season as both Juan Pablo and Scott Dixon and more podium finishes (six) than either of them, the nine point gap that separated Graham from the top spot on the championship race could be overcome in a single race like this one—a 500 mile marathon event with multiple opportunities to overcome a driving mistake or a miscue in the pits.
Add to that the fact that Bobby Rahal, Graham’s father and one of the principles of the Rahal/Letterman/Lanigan operation that fields the car for Graham, won here 27 years ago (in 1988) in an eerily similar situation to that of the 2015 season. Bobby Rahal suffered the slings and arrows of misfortune with an underachieving Judd engine for much of the season before catching fire late in that season, on his way to 24 career INDYCAR victories.
To add even more curiosity to the event, the engine in Bobby’s 1988 car was originally a Brabham-Honda. The parallels are stunningly pregnant to a discussion of history repeating.
“It is similar to today,” said the elder Rahal. “Honda has had some issues keeping up with Chevy (the series’ other engine manufacturer) this year with the aero kits and engines, but they kept plugging along and our car is right in the thick of it for the championship.”
Graham Rahal started the race in Long Pond PA on Sunday in the fifth position, the inside of the third row. On his first pit stop, the team’s fueler encountered difficulty getting the fuel-lock to open and engage; and upon getting fuel aboard, had difficulty getting the device to disengage, resulting in a thirty-second loss under the green flag.
Despite considerable mayhem in the field (Jack Hawksworth sent an unsecured left rear tire onto the track on Lap 30, Sebastian Bourdais mysteriously lost control seven laps later) Rahal kept the car out of trouble and moving forward to overcome the gaffe.
For all the good karma, though, there was a factor no one accounted for: part-time runner Tristian Vautier of Dale Coyne Racing, who got under Rahal in a 3-wide charge through Turn 3, a move that culminated with both Vautier and Rahal in the SAFER barrier—race ended—on Lap 93.
A brief on-track “discussion” between the two drivers ensued. Safety workers physically restrained the bigger Rahal (who stands a full header taller than the Frenchman). Finally both drivers were in their separate safety and medical vehicles, on their way to a clean bill of health from the infield medical staff.
Rahal, for all the disappointment was fairly sanguine about the situation.
“We overcame a fueling issue and were working our way back,” said Rahal afterwards. It’s just a shame. It hurts us, definitely…puts a big, big dent in things.”
And then Graham delivered the best dead-pan line of the season to veteran TV and print journalist Robin Miller: “That’s what happens when you get out there in the field with the squirrels—you’re going to get your nuts cracked.”
Miller claims he didn’t set Graham up for the line, it was completely spontaneous.
It was also completely in character for a great, young American driver who is enjoying the best year of his career.
The following two tabs change content below. Graham RahalIndyCar SeriesTristan Vautier