Bobby Rahal wants son Graham to stay with IndyCar team: ‘He’s a hell of a race car driver’

INDIANAPOLIS — Rarely has someone as accomplished at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as Bobby Rahal looked so uncomfortable there.

That’ll happen when you’re asked about the future of your own kid on your race team.

Yet there he sat Friday morning, overlooking the famed yard of bricks before Indy 500 practice, answering questions about Graham Rahal’s future with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

The 34-year-old son of the 1986 winner said this week that while he wants to continue driving for dad, Graham Rahal also wants to drive somewhere that he can be competitive.

That hasn’t been with Bobby Rahal and co-owners Mike Lanigan and David Letterman lately.

So as a contract year for Graham Rahal heads toward “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” the elder Rahal was asked pointedly Friday whether he sees a future on the team for his son, who has not won an IndyCar race in six years.

“Yeah, of course,” Bobby Rahal said, “because he’s a hell of a race car driver.”

Left unsaid was that Graham Rahal has not often had a chance to prove it.

Heading into last weekend’s Grand Prix on the Indianapolis road course, Rahal Letterman Lanigan had three top-10 finishes and none in the top five through a combined 12 starts this season. The best had been Graham Rahal in sixth at the season-opener at St. Petersburg and Christian Lundgaard, who also ran sixth at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama.

Yet there have been some positive signs since the team walked into Gasoline Alley this month.

Lundgaard nearly landed on the podium with a fourth-place run in the Grand Prix, and perhaps more impressively, Rahal showed poise and maturity in rallying from an early incident that put him off strategy and at the back of the field to finish 10th.

“That takes