IRONDALE-Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal, currently 13th in the NTT IndyCar standings, is looking forward to his return to the Magic City next weekend. “I have really fallen in love with Birmingham and the area,” he said. “I don’t know that I’ve been to many more beautiful places than Birmingham.”

“All the driver’s wives have Barber circled,” Rahal said. “It is just a beautiful, beautiful track. We are used to going to a lot of race tracks, and a lot of tracks around this world are not very pretty. That’s the facts. So, when we all get the opportunity to go somewhere awesome, we enjoy it.”

The six-time IndyCar winner is excited to get his One Cure Honda on track at Barber. “It is massively challenging, so I have always enjoyed that aspect. From a driver’s perspective, we are on blast all weekend. You’ve got no margin for error, and if you make a mistake, everyone sees it.”

“There are so many different elevations and blind and tight corners,” he said. “I think when we first showed up, everybody thought, how’s this going to work as an IndyCar track? We knew it worked as a motorcycle track, but in reality, it probably puts on the best IndyCar road course race of the entire year.” 

Rahal continued, “I think every corner is unique. You look at turn one, and it doesn’t look like anything tricky. When you’re coming up to it at the top of fifth gear at 160 mph, it is completely blind. It is a major challenge to hit your marks and to do things right. If you turn in too early in the apex, you bounce off and crash. If you miss it too late, well, you know.”

“The back section of the track is very demanding,” he said. “Turns eight, nine, and ten are completely blind, and the esses on the backstretch, flat out in qualifying, is pretty tricky. Turns twelve and thirteen; that’s as daunting as it gets. You’re not going to many places in our sport that are that fast and edgy,” Rahal said. “I don’t like to over-dramatize things, but it’s definitely a zero margin for error place.” You have to get it right, or you’ll pay the price, but that’s kind of what Barber is all about.”

Rahal, who began his career in Champ Car with the famed Newman/Haas/Lanigan team in 2007, has high expectations for his team and himself this year. “They’re high, but they’re high every year,” he said. “I want to compete for a championship and run up front. We want to do all those things because we know we can. We’ve been close so many times before. It’s an achievable goal for us.” 

Rahal’s 2023 campaign got off to a good start at the season opener at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Pete. “Obviously, finishing sixth at St. Pete was one step better than where we finished there last year. Yeah, so not bad, you know.” Rahal finished 24th at the PPG 375 on Texas Motor Speedway’s high banks after getting caught up in a Devlin Defrancesco crash. Rahal bounced back with a 12th-place finish at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach this past Sunday. He started in the 24th spot and worked his way toward the front. “Not a bad day at the beach,” he said. “We have to keep working on starting the weekend a bit better, but I’m proud of all the effort from the team.” This year Rahal is looking to get to the top of the podium at Barber. He has shown consistency and competitiveness in his previous 12 races there. Rahal had runner-up finishes in 2015 and 2016. 

Outside of the car, Rahal is enjoying life as a family man. He is married to former NHRA drag racing star Courtney Force. “It has been amazing,” he said. “My little girls and Court are my life.” He and Courtney are getting used to experiencing race weekends as a family at the track. “They come every weekend. Court and I bought a motor home about five years ago with bunk beds, but we had no kids for the bunk beds. Now here we are, and it is perfect. We’re filling those bunks, so it’s been pretty cool.”

Rahal has some advice for people thinking about coming to the race. “What you will enjoy about an IndyCar race at Barber is the southern hospitality. It will make great memories with your family,” he said. “IndyCar in Alabama provides you with an opportunity to get out and see racing in a setting that you are not used to. Come see it if you haven’t. Take pride in Barber and show off what you have because not everyone has anything like it.”