1,000 Greatest Drivers: Bobby Rahal

Flies under-the-radar because he peaked in a rather dull era of IndyCar racing.

This one is kind of weird. I’ve always felt Rahal was underrated and ranked him 7th in my 100 Greatest Drivers list in 2016, but it feels like Rahal does not have the legacy he deserves despite being one of only two drivers along with Rick Mears to win three CART titles and one of only three drivers along with A.J. Foyt and Parnelli Jones to win the Indy 500 as a driver and then as an owner for someone else. His impact is massive yet he still seems to fly under the radar, probably because his two main rivals Michael Andretti and Al Unser, Jr. were both more dominant than him (even though Rahal was more consistent than either) and got a major boost because their fathers were all-time greats while Rahal wasn’t. But then again, that proves that he didn’t need nepotism to make it to the same degree, which I suspect is one of the reasons I rated him higher back then (but I don’t now). I explain why he now flies under-the-radar in my final paragraph. I think it’s Andretti, Unser, and even Danny Sullivan (via Miami Vice) breaking through as mainstream celebrities in a way he didn’t, the fact that he had a quiet, mild-mannered personality and didn’t draw attention to himself, and the fact that so many IndyCar fans think the Indy 500 is more important than the championship and a lot of his best performances were on road courses, like when he won at Laguna Seca four years in a row in 1984-1987. Also ‘80s CART was honestly pretty dull. It didn’t have the wild variations in chassis and engines of the ‘60s, yet it didn’t have the international appeal or the wild competition of the 1995-2001 period, so there’s a reason why NASCAR overtook CART in domestic popularity in that decade. Yes, kiddies; it happened long before 1996 regardless of what the CARTisans will tell you. I’m well aware CART races were already being pre-empted for NASCAR races on ESPN in the early ‘90s. I do also think Rahal has been kind of annoying as a car owner (especially during the Danica Patrick period), but that shouldn’t detract from his relatively understated performance as a driver. It’s telling that most of the drivers have exciting races to talk about and he really doesn’t (even his winning pass in the 1986 Indy 500 was basically a fait accompli once that caution came out since everyone knew he was going to pass Kevin Cogan), so I ended up weirdly spending as much time talking about all the other stuff he did than his actual racing, which I was not expecting to do.