Q&A: Graham Rahal.

Wednesday, 16th April 2008

Fresh from winning his first-ever IndyCar Series race, on the streets of St Petersburg, Graham Rahal has the chance to go back-to-back in two different cars, but snatch the overall IRL points lead, in the Long Beach Grand Prix.

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So I feel fine on the oval. It's different, obviously, because on an oval, they set the car up where the steering wheel is tilted right and your head is crooked to the left. So coming out of the pits, quite a different feeling, but I've got no problem with the car. It's a nice car to drive and it's different, but you know, it's just fine.

Q:
Can you talk about the rivalry between the Champ Car and the IRL drivers, and if you think that's good for the sport?

GR:
The media is not going to let go of it and we need to face that and say, well, the Champ Car drivers ought to kick all the IRL drivers' ass and you look at it six of the Top 10 drivers were Champ Car drivers.

In order to help this sport continue to grow, it needs to stop, because we are all here, we are all working together. We want to make the sport successful, because at the end of the day, for us people that started in open wheel racing, love open wheel racing and want to continue to see open wheel racing succeed and get back to where it used to be, it can no longer be Champ Car versus IRL. It has to just be IndyCar Series.
The drivers inside look, if you want to go Champ Car versus IRL, all of the top Indy car drivers are from Champ Car, so you're really not you know, it's not Champ Car versus IRL because all of us really started in Champ Car, so it's a different you know, I just think it's got to end.

But like I said it's not going to any time soon. And I think maybe once the Champ Car team starts to be very competitive on the ovals, people will drop it a little, and on the road courses, it's one series now and that's how we need to go forward.

Q:
You sort of answered this, I'd like your take. You're in a unique situation and you're a young driver and most of your life you've been part of the split but obviously your family name is synonymous with American open wheel racing, what is it like to take the green flag for the race of the split before you guys are one series back again?

GR:
But, again, I think the biggest thing is that we are one series now. Of course, this was the best way to resolve a hurdle that we had to merging it and that was by running Japan and Long Beach at the same date. Of course that isn't the ideal but that's how it goes.