This is part five in a 12-part series previewing every team set to compete in the 2019 IndyCar season. I will be previewing two teams per week on Push2Pass leading up to the season opener in St. Petersburg on March 10. Today’s team: Rahal Letterman Lanigan
The father-son duo of IndyCar legend Bobby Rahal and 11-year veteran Graham Rahal are aiming to take a step forward in 2019. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing fielded two full-time entries in 2018 for the first time since 2013 and only the second time since 2006.
The team has been around since 1992 when Bobby won four races as part-owner/solo driver to take the drivers championship in the team’s first season, and Bobby continued racing with the team until 1998 with other drivers. Kenny Brack gave the team their next highest finish of second in the 2001 CART series, and Michael Jourdain, Jr. finished third in 2003 during the team’s final season in CART.
Buddy Rice gave the team three wins in 2004, including the biggest of them all with a pole and win at the Indy 500. It would be four more years until the team delivered another win with a young Ryan Hunter-Reay in 2008. The team raced in a limited capacity in the following years, only returning full-time with Sato’s one-year run of two podium finishes in 2012 and Graham’s decision to join the team in 2013. Bobby Rahal’s team has 26 wins, 30 poles and 97 podium finishes in their 27-year history.
The Drivers
Graham Rahal (#15)
Career: 194 starts, 6 wins, 3 poles, 23 podiums, 95 top-10 finishes
2018: Avg. Qualifying 13.2 (15th), Avg. Finish 11.1 (11th), 8th overall
Rahal won his first career IndyCar start at St. Petersburg in 2008 for Newman/Haas Racing, becoming the youngest IndyCar winner at 19-years old. It took him until 2015 to win another race when he came in first at the oval at Fontana, and he also won at Mid-Ohio a few weeks later. Rahal had seven runner-up finishes in the series before finally breaking his 125-race winless streak. He finished fourth in the championship that season, RLL’s highest finish since Rice’s third place in 2004.
Rahal scored four podiums in 2016, including a win at Texas for his second-consecutive season finishing in the top-five of the standings. He posted an impressive double win at Detroit on back-to-back days, becoming the first driver to do so since the race became a double header in 2013.
Last season proved to be more difficult, as Rahal only finished on the podium in the season opener at St. Petersburg. He only finished within the top-five three times in 2018, but he still managed to finish eighth in the standings due to consistent top-10 performances. Rahal also finished ahead of his teammate Sato at 12 of the 17 races.
Takuma Sato (#30)
Career: 152 starts, 3 wins, 7 poles, 8 podiums, 47 top-10 finishes
2018: Avg. Qualifying 12.2 (11th), Avg. Finish 13.2 (13th), 12th overall
The 41-year-old Japanese driver returned to RLL in 2018 after racing for the team during the 2012 season. He secured his first IndyCar podium in 2012 at the Sao Paulo race in Brazil, but it wasn’t until the following year with AJ Foyt’s team that he won his first IndyCar race at the famous Long Beach street circuit. It would take him until 2017 to win another race, but the wait may have been worth it as he added his name to the highly-esteemed list of Indy 500 winners as he held off a late charge from three-time winner Helio Castroneves. The win at Indy propelled him to top-five in the standings for part of the season, and he ended up finishing a career-best eighth in the championship during his lone season at Andretti Autosport.
Sato had a strong drive at Iowa to finish on his first podium of 2018, but his greatest moment of the season came at the penultimate race of the year at Portland. It was the first time the series had returned to the city since 2007, and Sato drove all the way from 20th to take his third career victory. Sato also was thre series-leader in picking up positions in the final 10 percent of the race. This role of best “closer” was clear by picking up three positions at St. Pete’s and six at Barber in the closing laps, finishing with 13 positions gained in the final 10 percent on the season.
Outlook for 2019
RLL will be retaining two full-time drivers for the first time since the mid-2000’s, so the level of familiarity should be a welcome sign for the team in 2019. Graham Rahal needs to have a strong season to make sure he doesn’t fall out of the top-10 championship standings for the first time since 2014. A key will be improving qualifying position, which Rahal admitted on the Marshall Pruett Podcast was a major problem in being a championship contender.
Rahal won the “Don’t Crack Under Pressure Award” last season for gaining the most positions from start to finish at all events, and Sato and Rahal were also the top-two drivers for losing the fewest positions in 2018. However, this could be aided by starting further back than they expected. Both qualified within the top-10 eight times, but Sato won the head-to-head matchup 9-8 over his teammate. Neither driver qualified higher than fifth at any race last season.
The Verdict
Rahal will get back on track with at least one win in 2019 and will just manage to stay in the top-10 of the championship standings after stronger efforts from Arrow Schmidt Peterson and Chip Ganassi. Sato will probably have a tougher year, and I don’t expect him to be able to win a race for the third consecutive year. There were quite a few races where he seemed to disappear and have no pace last season, so he needs to have more consistent top-10 finishes in order to keep his seat beyond 2019.
Later this week- Preview #6: Harding Steinbrenner Racing
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