Fansided

5 IndyCar drivers to watch in 2017

By Brittany Frederick

Team Penske's Josef Newgarden observes the IndyCar team test at Sebring International Raceway. Photo Credit: Chris Owens/Courtesy of IndyCar
Team Penske's Josef Newgarden observes the IndyCar team test at Sebring International Raceway. Photo Credit: Chris Owens/Courtesy of IndyCar /
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IndyCar drivers to watch
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal. Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Verizon IndyCar Series. /

Graham Rahal

Team: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
2016 Finish: 5th
2016 Wins: 1 (Texas)

Graham Rahal is no stranger to being talked about. As one of the full-time IndyCar drivers with a legendary last name, he’s aware that he’s supposed to be one of the IndyCar drivers to watch all of the time. And he’ll be the first person to tell you that hasn’t panned out — until maybe now.

Rahal is coming off his second consecutive season where he forced his way into the championship conversation. Last year he won the season’s closest race at Texas in a literal wheel to wheel battle under the lights. He also finished on the podium at Alabama, Road America and Sonoma and had multiple fourth-place results. In fact, that’s kind of been Graham Rahal’s recent story: so close and yet so far.

He hasn’t quite been able to punch up into that top three of the IndyCar title hunt, despite his best efforts and plenty of tenacity. But after two years of almost, his team has decided they’re going to take things up a notch. They hired Oriol Servia as Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s second driver for the Indianapolis 500 and the Dual in Detroit. In doing so, the team was clear that they looked at Servia as more of a support for Rahal — someone from whom he could get additional data and advice to push him over the top.

Will their strategy play work? Could this be the year that Graham Rahal finishes on the podium for the championship and not just an individual race? And if it works, will we see other teams decide to field second cars more to help their first? There are multiple reasons why Rahal’s results will be worth keeping track of in 2017.