Medi | Zone driver Graham Rahal led a Champ Car race for the first time in today’s Grand Prix of Cleveland Presented by LaSalle Bank but finished eighth after contact early in the race after starting fourth. Unfortunately, despite putting pressure on eventual winner Paul Tracy from second place in the late stages of the race, Rahal had to pit for a mere five gallons of fuel with four laps to go and finished eighth in his home event. He earned his best qualifying position of fourth place and performed a good standing start, the second in Champ Car history, but ran out of track on the tight first turns and dropped back to fifth behind fellow rookie and F1 test and race driver Robert Doornbos.
He kept pressure on Doornbos and passed him on Lap 3 but Doornbos pulled alongside and wasn’t giving Rahal enough room on the track and cut him off going into a corner on Lap 4. In order not to get hit, Rahal got off the throttle and Paul Tracy, who was close behind him, hit Rahal and put him in the grass. The Medi | Zone car was not damaged so once he was restarted the team brought him in to the pits and replaced his tires and topped off his fuel on Lap 5 and he returned to the track in 16th place. On the restart, Tracy hit the back of Bruno Junqueira’s car and brought out the second caution period. Since Rahal as in 14th place the team brought him back in on Lap 8 under caution to again top off his fuel. When Doornbos was assessed a drive through penalty for blocking earlier in the race, Rahal moved into 12th. He passed Jan Heylen, Tristan Gommendy and Ryan Dalziel and was in ninth place before the frontrunners began making their first pit stops.
He moved into second place and eventual took the lead of a Champ Car race for the first time on Laps 30-33 before he made his first routine stop and third overall on Lap 34. He returned to the track in seventh place but moved into sixth with Tracy made his stop on Lap 35. He ran in sixth place through the caution period for a crash between Gommendy and Heylen from Laps 36-41 and until the next round of stops began and he moved into third before his second routine stop and fourth overall on Lap 58. He returned to the track in ninth place but was back in sixth by Lap 66 and into fourth on Lap 67 after Doornbos pitted and Bourdais stopped on course due to engine failure. A caution flag came out from Laps 68-72 to remove the cars of Bourdais and Dan Clarke, who also stopped on course and most of the frontrunners used this time to make their final stops.
New race leader Paul Tracy, who last pitted on Lap 63 and Rahal stayed on course and ran one-two. Once the race resumed Rahal was told he could drive as hard as he wanted since he couldn’t make it to the end of the race without another stop unless another caution came out. Rahal closed on Tracy repeatedly but was unable to safely pass him. Unfortunately another caution period never came out and he pitted for a mere five gallons of fuel on Lap 85 of what would be 89 and returned to the track in ninth place. He passed Dalziel on the final lap to finish eighth and collect 15 points to bring his total to 74 and move him to a tie for seventh place in the season standings.
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