Indy to be family affair

Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS

Graham Rahal still enjoys a good family dinner. He’s just smart enough to know dad can’t always foot the bill.

The lanky 21-year-old son and the proud Indianapolis 500-winning father chose something new this year: If they could come up with sponsorship money, they’d spend this May working together in Indianapolis.

“I’ve said all along that the one thing I didn’t want to do was come here and have my family pay for it or, quite frankly, do any racing and have my family pay for it,” Graham Rahal said.

Rahal certainly had good intentions, even if it meant changing racing’s traditional all-in-the-family concept. Many fathers typically have hired their sons to drive cars, with the list including familiar names such as the Pettys, Earnhardts and Andrettis.

But driving for dad can come with a price. There are endless comparisons, constant questions about similarities and differences and, of course, the perception that dad is providing a helping hand.

One example is 23-year-old Marco Andretti. He won three of his six starts in IndyCars’ developmental series in 2005, was barely edged out of an Indy 500 win in 2006, his rookie season, and became the youngest winner of a race in series history later in 2006.

Yet today, he still hears people question whether he’d have a ride without the family history.

“The bummer about driving for your father is that is the perception when in truth he [Michael]) probably overcompensates on me the other way by making things tougher on me,” Marco Andretti said. “I had other options when I came out as a rookie, but in our business perception is reality and you have to prove people wrong.”

That’s exactly why the Rahals went separate ways.

Bobby hired his son for an occasional race, but he didn’t want anyone thinking his son was getting a handout.

So Graham took a job with an established Champ Car team, Newman/Haas, and spent the next three seasons trying to make his own name in the racing business. He won the 2008 IndyCar season-opener at St. Petersburg, breaking Andretti’s record as the youngest race winner in history at 19 years and 93 days.