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IndyCar: Graham Rahal’s best chance to win championship is in 2018

By Asher Fair

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - MAY 26: Graham Rahal, driver of the #15 Steak n' Shake Honda stands on the grid during Carb day for the 101st Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motorspeedway on May 26, 2017 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - MAY 26: Graham Rahal, driver of the #15 Steak n' Shake Honda stands on the grid during Carb day for the 101st Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motorspeedway on May 26, 2017 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /
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The 2018 IndyCar season appears as though it will provide perennial contender Graham Rahal with his best chance to win a championship yet.

Graham Rahal, 29, has become a perennial championship contender in IndyCar over the course of his 11-year career in the sport. In each of the last three seasons, he has finished in the top 6 in the championship standings as the lone driver for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in the #15 Honda. He is one of four drivers who have done so. Two of the other three are also set to return to full-time competition in IndyCar in the 2018 season.

Rahal has totaled five wins over that three-year span after failing to win a single race for over seven years prior to that. He has consistently been Honda’s top driver throughout this three-year period from the 2015 to the 2017 season during which Chevrolet and Honda developed their own aero kits.

In the 2015 season, Rahal ended a win drought that had lasted for over seven seasons by winning at Fontana. He then went on to win at Mid-Ohio en route to a career-high 4th place finish in the championship standings. He was the highest finishing Honda driver in the standings.

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In the 2016 season, Rahal won another race late in the season at Texas en route to a 5th place finish in the championship standings. For the second consecutive season, he was the highest finishing Honda driver in the standings.

In the 2017 season, Rahal finished in 6th place in the championship standings. Yes, Scott Dixon, a Honda driver, did finish ahead of Rahal in the 2017 championship standings. Dixon finished in 3rd place, while Rahal finished 6th. However, Rahal won two races while Dixon won just one. In fact, Rahal was the only Honda driver with more than one victory in the 2017 season.

With a new universal aero kit set to be introduced to IndyCar competition in the 2018 season, expect Rahal to thrive. Even though he struggled in the 2013 and 2014 seasons driving for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing when Chevrolet and Honda used the same overall aerodynamic setups, as he finished in 18th and 19th place in the championship standings, respectively, he and his team just proved over the last three seasons that they can have major success even when Honda has been the underdog and struggled from an aerodynamic standpoint.

With the overall gap between Chevrolet and Honda set to close as a result of the new universal aero kits that will take away Chevrolet’s recent aerodynamic advantage and this gap actually set to potentially open up in Honda’s favor given their recent horsepower advantage, don’t expect Rahal to struggle in the 2018 season like he did in the 2013 and 2014 seasons.

Plus, for the first time since the 2013 season when James Jakes drove for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Rahal will have a full-time teammate. In each of the past four seasons, he has had to go about each season without a full-time teammate. His teammate in the 2018 season is set to be 2017 Indianapolis 500 champion Takuma Sato, so expect him to benefit from the extra data.

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How will Graham Rahal perform in the 2018 IndyCar season? Will he finally be able to break through and win his first career championship in the sport? The season is set to begin on Sunday, March 11th with the St. Petersburg Grand Prix. Rahal’s first career IndyCar win came in this race 10 years ago.