Son has been shining

Younger Rahal blazing own trail

INDIANAPOLIS - Bobby Rahal could not say if watching his 19-year-old son, Graham, win his first IndyCar Series race April 6 in the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Fla., was analogous to watching him take his first steps.

"I'm not even sure I remember his first steps," the 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner said yesterday with a chuckle.

The elder Rahal said all he could recall of the momentous event was being overcome with "a sense of pride and joy I'm not sure that I've ever experienced before" as he watched Graham hold off Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan, two of the toughest customers on the IndyCar circuit, to become the youngest winner in series history.

"I think it kind of was his first step, in a way," Bobby Rahal said. "What made it so special for me was that he really overcame adversity. He had missed the race before and that takes something out of your confidence, I think. But to come back the way he did, it was just phenomenal."

Graham Rahal was forced to sit out the 2008 season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway when he crashed his primary car during a test session five days before. But he overcame that setback, in addition to a bumpy start at St. Pete, to earn the win for his Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing team, one of the five transition squads that jumped from the defunct Champ Car Series to the IRL after the unification of open-wheel racing.

"I just think that the way it was done, to turn back Helio and Tony not once but twice, nobody could say it was fuel strategy," said Bobby Rahal. "I mean, he left those guys [behind]. It was pretty cool."

"It was just really nice to get the win, because no matter what we had to go through, it was just nice to be able to get that out of the way and to get the first one and to just move on from there," said Graham.

However, it seemed to mean so much more to his father. That much was evident when the elder Rahal tried to remain composed and choke back his emotions in front of ABC's cameras when his son crossed the finish line. "He tries to say that he wasn't [emotional], but I'm pretty sure he was," Graham said with a laugh. "Not at the time when I hugged him, but when they interviewed him, I could tell he was crying."

It was the fruition of a father's dream; Bobby first recognized his son's talent for the game during an A1GP test session in Misano, Italy, two years ago.

"So he went to a track he'd never been to, in a car he'd never driven," said Bobby, who had seen Graham perform on the Formula BMW and Star Mazda circuits. "We had flown all night, we got there and he was supposed to run the next day but they said, 'Why don't you go out and do some laps at the end?' and he went out and, literally, in 10 laps he did a time that would have won the pole position for the Formula 3000 race there the year before. I walked out of there like, 'Holy smokes.' It shocked me, but in a good way."

Then Graham was just as impressive when he tested a Lola for Newman/Haas in Sebring, Fla.

"His times were as quick as [Sebastien] Bourdais's, if not quicker," said Bobby.

And so, when Graham captured his milestone triumph, what made it so gratifying for Bobby was the fact his son not only overcame adversity, but he did it on his own terms, on his own merit.

"The easy thing would've been to come drive for us, but ultimately that wouldn't have been much good for him," Bobby said. "Now he never has to answer the question, 'Are you here because your dad owns the team or because you're good enough?' As I tell people, his career is about him, it's not about me. He's here to make himself look good. I think he is in the best place.

"If you look at the people who have driven for that team over the years, some of the greatest drivers in the history of the sport have driven there - Nigel Mansell, Jackie Stewart, Bourdais, Mario Andretti, Michael [Andretti], and others. To be included in that, it's pretty cool."

Said Graham, "Our family mentality is that in order for me to make my name and to gain credibility, it has to be away from Dad. This [Newman/Haas] team has been very successful. They've always done well at Indy but they've never won at Indy. They've done everything but."

Graham will start the 92d Indianapolis 500 in the 13th position in Row 5. Asked for his expectations for the race, Graham said, "I expect to finish in the top 10, I hope to finish in the top five, and if God were looking over us, we'd win. That's going to come down to strategy, it's going to come down to having good pit stops, it's going to come down to keeping that thing off those white walls and making sure we make it to the 199th lap."

Rahal's voice trailed off as he seemed to put himself in a trance, envisioning his strategy. Clearly, he was preoccupied by the race.

"You're always thinking about it," Graham said. "You want to make it happen. And I'd like to see it happen. No. 1, I think it'd be huge for the sport [since it would make him the youngest winner in the history of the race by three years]. No. 2, I think it'd be huge for myself, and kind of take my career to a whole different level, both commercially and in racing, and that's definitely something I'd like to see."

And what would it mean to his father? Bobby won it as a driver in 1986, then as a car owner in 2004, with Buddy Rice behind the wheel, but if he were to do it as the father of the winning driver?

"Oh, I think that would probably dwarf the others," he said after a deep breath. "I think, at least for me, it would. Any parent, you always want your children to go beyond; to be better, to be successful. That's the thing I wish for all of my children, that they achieve their dreams and their goals.

"For Graham, winning championships and being a top-flight, world-class racer has always been his dream. When they do achieve something like that, you've got to think, 'Wow, that's what it's all about.' "

Indy 500
What: 92d running
When: Sunday, 1 p.m.
Where: Indianapolis
TV: Ch. 5
Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.