Top 25 IndyCar drivers of all-time
By Asher Fair
Top IndyCar drivers of all-time: #15 – Bobby Rahal
Bobby Rahal is one of six drivers with at least two dozen race wins, three championships and an Indy 500 win to his name, and it didn’t take him long to start winning once he arrived in the sport in 1982. He won in his third start at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, Ohio, and that was the first race he actually finished.
With a six-win 1986 season, Rahal won his first championship in his fifth season as a full-time driver, and he backed that up with another championship-winning 1987 season that saw him win three more races. He won his third and final title in the 1992 season, which also saw him secure his 24th and final win at the now defunct Nazareth Speedway.
Rahal is still involved in the sport as a team owner and recently won the Indy 500 for a third time, including his second as a team owner. His team won it in 2004 with Buddy Rice, and Takuma Sato earned them redemption for his last-lap crash in 2012 with his victory in 2020 ahead of teammate Graham Rahal, Bobby’s son, in third place.
It marked Sato’s second win and Rahal’s second third place finish, but neither driver had recorded his first respective result of first or third driving for Bobby’s team.
As a driver, Bobby won the race in 1986 in his fifth attempt en route to securing his first championship. Despite recording three top three finishes in his final five Indy 500 starts, he didn’t manage to win the race again and retired with 13 starts in 14 attempts.
He ended his career with the same number of wins and championships as Ted Horn, but unlike Horn, who recorded nine straight top four finishes in the Indy 500, he was able to win the greatest race in the world.
In 17 seasons of full-time competition, Rahal finished outside of the top 10 in the championship standings just once and recorded 12 top five finishes.