"We were damn close this year”: When Graham Rahal looked back on his near-miss to IndyCar championship

Graham Rahal, the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver, has been competing in IndyCar since the 2008 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. He was within touching distance of his maiden championship in 2021 but ultimately failed to clinch it.

Rahal amassed an impressive seven top-five and 11 top-ten finishes in the 2021 IndyCar season. He ended the campaign in seventh position in the drivers' standings, and following this, he dwelt on how he could have amassed his first world championship.

The 36-year-old, back in 2021, said (via TVBrittanyF):

"I actually think that we were damn close this year, honestly. I felt this year we did a lot of the good things—a lot of the small things, a lot of the big things right. I feel like we really closed the gap. You could say qualifying is one thing, but if you look at qualifying of recent, our performance has gotten significantly better. And so as I look towards next year, I do think there’s a lot that we can carry from what we’ve been finding lately in our race cars and our qualifying cars as well, that’ll help us."

In the 2021 season of the 'fastest racing on earth,' Rahal was able to secure an impressive 389 points. He was beaten to sixth place by Marcus Ericsson, who managed to secure 435 points alongside two wins.

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Graham Rahal regretted not securing a 'win' in 2021 IndyCar campaign

While Graham Rahal talked in detail about his missed world championship opportunity in 2021, he also shared his opinion on not acquiring a victory.

In line with this, the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver said in the same interview:

"We’ve been really good this year, and consistency has definitely been our thing. I think that it’s just one of those things though, that we haven’t been able to get a win. And ultimately, when you look at the championship, that’s what affects us the most…we’ve only been on the podium once.

"We have seven top-5’s this year, which is probably the most of anybody, or very, very, close, I would say. But you’ve got to get some wins to tip yourself over and to go win a championship, and we haven’t been able to quite do that."

Graham Rahal has been competing in the highest class of open-wheel racing in America for a long time and has so far amassed a whopping 278 race starts. His best overall season finish to date in the competition has been fourth place, which he achieved in the 2015 season.

In 2024, the 36-year-old was only able to conjure up an 18th-place finish in the standings. With Rahal currently in the latter stages of his racing career, the window is closing fast on him to amass at least one IndyCar championship.