In one of the most anticipated off-season moves in IndyCar, Graham Rahal made it official Monday that he isn’t retiring or will drive for another team in 2024.
Rather, the son of 1986 Indianapolis 500 champion and team co-owner Bobby Rahal will stay right at home at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, agreeing to a new multi-year contract extension.
“I’m extremely excited to get a new multi-year agreement in place and hopefully continue to build and improve the team,” Graham Rahal said. “At the end of the season, we saw some glimpses of what we can and should be.
“Obviously, there is a lot of work still to be done to ensure that we continue to grow and get ourselves in a place for continuous success but I’m excited about the signs that I saw. I’m glad that we were able to come together with Mike (co-owner Mike Lanigan), my dad, David (co-owner David Letterman) and everyone at the organization to continue together.”
While Rahal, who turns 37 on January 4, finished 15th in the championship this past season, his worst showing in the series since ending up 19th in 2014, there were signs of promise in the latter stages of the 2023 campaign.
He earned two poles in the last four races—his first poles since 2017—and he finished second in the late summer edition of the Indianapolis Grand Prix (part of the Brickyard 400 weekend with NASCAR), his first podium finish since 2021.
He also started the season with a sixth-place finish at St. Petersburg and had back-to-back top-10 finishes at Mid-Ohio (7th) and Toronto (9th).
But 2023 was also an arduous season at times for the younger Rahal. He finished 20th or worse in five of the first 12 races, made four early exits due to contact, and also embarrassingly failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500.
