Graham Rahal: "We have to win races"
New addition to Ganassi stable is aiming for the top
The moment that Graham Rahal signed with Chip Ganassi Racing during the offseason, the pressure on him to contend regularly for wins increased exponentially.
As he heads into next week's Open Test at Barber Motorsports Park -- and the season opening Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg at the end of the month -- the 22-year-old has acknowledged that pressure.
"I think we have to have a breakout season," Rahal said during a teleconference on Thursday afternoon. "I think we have to win races. We've got to be right up there with the Target cars and the Penske cars all year. If we're not, I think I'd be very disappointed, but also pretty surprised."
Rahal certainly has high expectations for himself and his No. 38 Service Central team, which will form a four-car Ganassi armada with the aforementioned "Team Target" of two-time defending series champion Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon, as well as the No. 83 Novo Nordisk team of Charlie Kimball. After racing for multiple teams in 2010, Rahal is now part of a title contender with the best equipment and personnel at his disposal.
It's making him very anxious to get started and add more wins alongside his St. Petersburg triumph in 2008, which came in his very first IZOD IndyCar Series start.
"I think St. Pete '08 was a long time ago, no doubt about that," he said. "Like you said, I don't think anybody wants to win in this organization as badly as I do. St. Pete has been a good place for me. I'm going to hope that we kick it off correctly. Got my first win there, my first pole there. I think it would be a great way to start this year, by us having a very competitive showing there."
Also helping him in 2011 are a pair of old comrades. Team manager Mitch Davis (a re-hire for CGR) and Martin Pare worked with Rahal back when he drove for Newman-Haas Racing, which should certainly add to the young Ohioan's level of comfort.
"I think what Mitch is so good for that a lot of people don't see is that his dedication and his desire to work and to work hard is unmatched in this paddock," Rahal said. "I can promise anybody that. He's not afraid, even as a team manager, to get arms deep working on the cars, doing whatever is necessary to make sure that we're competitive and to make sure we're safe and got good equipment.
As for his relationship with Pare, Rahal seemed to describe it as something bordering on telepathic.
"...We know each other. We can read each other," he said. "We know what each other is thinking. I think that for us, it's a very easy transition to come to Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing and I hope that we can have some success together because this will be going on our third year of somewhat working together. I think for both of us, it could be a breakthrough season, so we're looking forward to it."
A breakthrough season for Rahal would be quite welcome for IndyCar as well. There's no doubt that the series could use a few more Americans battling every week for wins and podiums.
Six Americans will have full-time rides this season -- Rahal and Kimball, plus Panther's J.R. Hildebrand (expected to be Kimball's main competition for Rookie of the Year honors) and the Andretti Autosport trio of Danica Patrick, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Marco Andretti. It'll be interesting to see if this group can help IndyCar attract more public attention and like most of us, Rahal will be keeping an eye on that, too.
"I would say while it is important, we're going to see what happens this year," he said. "We've got a great field of American drivers, a really good group of people that can certainly succeed. We'll see how the fans take that...There's a long list of Americans to cheer for now. We'll see how it goes."
