Backstretch Motorsports

He missed the last race, the first of the new season. He crashed his primary car at a test. So his IndyCar Series debut had to wait until the street course at St Petersburg.

And did he ever make up for it.

Graham Rahal becomes not only the youngest driver to win a IndyCar Series race (19 years and 93 days old.), he becomes the first of the transition drivers to do so. He held off defending race champion Helio Castroneves.

It was a good day for the Newman/Haas/Lanagan driver to say the least.

“It feels awesome to win!” said Rahal, driving the No. 06 Hole in the Wall Camps Dallara/Honda/Firestone livery. “I’m so happy to have won a race and so proud of my guys. Helio is very successful and won a lot of races but I knew we had the pace that we could pull away. We were pulling away before and were aggressive saving fuel. You know there is one more lap left and you just don’t want to lose your focus so I was just trying to stay calm and make it through the last set of corners. I knew we had quote a gap so I wasn’t too worried. My dad said ‘Nice job.’ What more is there to say. What a great feeling.”

Rahal had to fight to get the win, when 13 laps shy of the halfway mark of the scheduled 100-lap Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, his car spun when tapped by the No. 8 car driven by Will Power in Turn 14 and dropped him to 23rd place.

When most of the field pitted under caution on Lap 60, he remained on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn circuit and was running second to Ryan Hunter-Reay’s No. 17 Team Ethanol entry – a car co-owned by dad Bobby Rahal.

“After getting hit by Will in the rain and everything, it was going to be a tough start,” said Rahal, who is the fourth to win in his IndyCar Series debut and the 12th to win in his first season. “It doesn’t get any sweeter than this; to expect a win in our first race. We had the pace and we pulled away from them, so it wasn’t like we lucked into it. This is just awesome.”

Castroneves finished 3.5192 seconds behind in the No. 3 Team Penske car. Pole-sitter Tony Kanaan wound up third and two other drivers who have transitioned to the IndyCar Series from Champ Car – HVM Racing’s Ernesto Viso and Conquest Racing’s Enrique Bernoldi – were fourth and fifth, respectively. Andretti Green Racing rookie Hideki Mutoh finished a career-best sixth and KV Racing Technology’s Oriol Servia was seventh. Power, who started on the front row in the Aussie Vineyards-Team Australia car for KV Racing Technology, recovered to finish ninth. Danica Patrick also recovered from two early spins off course to post a 10th-place finish.

Castroneves, who started fourth, took a 10-point lead in the series championship standings.

“It was so close,” he said. “Team Penske did everything we could to get that car set up well and I’m extremely happy to be a part of this organization. But in the slow section, the car was really pushing and I couldn’t just take a chance. Second place is good. Obviously, I want to win the race but I’ll take it. In terms of the season championship, second is worth a lot.”

A proud Bobby Rahal jokingly said in post race interview, “Do you think he’ll ever listen to any advice from me again? I’d hire him, but I can’t afford him.”

Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg race results:

Pos. Driver/Car No C/E/T S Qual Speed Laps XL LL Status Pts
1 Graham Rahal
Hole in the Wall Camps 06 D/H/F 9 103.165 83 0 19 Running 53
2 Helio Castroneves
Team Penske 3 D/H/F 4 103.438 83 0 0 Running 40
3 Tony Kanaan
Team 7-Eleven 11 D/H/F 1 103.627 83 1 15 Running 35
4 Ernesto Viso
PDVSA HVM Racing 33 D/H/F 15 102.359 83 1 12 Running 32
5 Enrique Bernoldi
Opes Prime/ Sangari 36 D/H/F 18 102.117 83 1 3 Running 30
6 Hideki Mutoh
Formula Dream 27 D/H/F 14 102.409 83 0 0 Running 28
7 Oriol Servia
KV Racing Technology 5 D/H/F 7 103.279 83 0 0 Running 26
8 Will Power
Aussie Vineyard-Team Australia 8 D/H/F 2 103.499 83 0 0 Running 24
9 Justin Wilson
McDonald’s Racing Team 02 D/H/F 3 103.444 83 1 18 Running 22
10 Danica Patrick
Motorola 7 D/H/F 19 101.924 83 0 0 Running 20
11 A.J. Foyt IV
Vision Racing 2 D/H/F 24 100.466 83 0 0 Running 19
12 Dan Wheldon
Target Chip Ganassi Racing 10 D/H/F 8 103.191 83 0 0 Running 18
13 Darren Manning
ABC Supply Co./AJ Foyt Racing 14 D/H/F 11 102.835 83 0 0 Running 17
14 Jay Howard
Roth Racing 24 D/H/F 20 101.656 82 0 0 Running 16
15 Buddy Rice
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 15 D/H/F 16 102.274 82 0 0 Running 15
16 Mario Moraes
The SONNY Car 19 D/H/F 22 100.999 82 0 0 Running 14
17 Ryan Hunter-Reay
Rahal Letterman Racing Team Ethanol 17 D/H/F 6 102.845 81 1 4 Running 13
18 Ed Carpenter
Menards/ Vision Racing 20 D/H/F 21 101.566 80 0 0 Accident 12
19 Vitor Meira
Delphi National Guard 4 D/H/F 17 102.131 75 1 1 Accident 12
20 Franck Perera
Ares/ Opes Prime 34 D/H/F 10 103.062 75 0 0 Accident 12
21 Townsend Bell
Dreyer and Reinbold William Rast 23 D/H/F 23 100.640 75 0 0 Accident 12
22 Scott Dixon
Target Chip Ganassi Racing 9 D/H/F 13 102.472 74 0 0 Mechanical 12
23 Ryan Briscoe
Team Penske 6 D/H/F 5 103.338 56 1 11 Accident 12
24 Bruno Junqueira
The Z-Line Car 18 D/H/F 25 93.392 44 0 0 Mechanical 12
25 Marco Andretti
Gillette Fusion 26 D/H/F 12 102.460 41 0 0 Mechanical 10
26 Marty Roth
Cirrus - Roth Racing 25 D/H/F 26 95.711 0 0 0 DNS 5

Key:
No: Car Number C/E/T: Chassis/Engine/Tire
S: Starting Position F: Finishing Position
XL: Times Led LL: Laps Led
Pts: Points