It is so hard right now given how deep the field is. I love these races that have no yellows – that's racing to me. I hate yellows. I prospered many times in my career thanks to yellows, but I still hate them! They interrupt the flow of the race. Sometimes they're thrown and you wonder, “What was that thrown for?” I think it's phenomenal and fantastic that these drivers have been able to drive these last two races without yellows.
But it's really tough on these guys. When you see Tony Kanaan not be able to stand up to do a television interview after a race, that should tell you something. Nobody's more fit than Tony.
In the end, without yellows, you have to qualify up front. Qualifications are everything. You need to be in the top six or eight to have a reasonable chance of winning the race, unless there's some freak occurrence that happens.
It was a long time ago we did the back-to-back with no yellows. Overall, I think that yellows tend to get thrown way too early. They interrupt the flow. But I'm proud of all the guys, because they've got through Turn 1 and 5 at Edmonton, Turn 3 and 7 at Mid-Ohio, and in every 90 or 180-degree corner, they made it. That's pretty good.
Lastly, with Graham now coming on the market, my whole view on this is that Graham needs to go to the best place for Graham. I think he's got some criticism for his “wanting to be treated like a number one” line, but I think he's due.
At Newman/Haas in 2009, that was a very good year for him. I don't think he ever qualified outside the top six on road courses, he was third in Richmond on an oval, third at Motegi on an oval, fourth at Indy qualifying, and then the team imploded when the sponsorship went away. From there he bounced around.
He's shown the ability. If he were to come here, and drove for RLL, I don't think that reflects badly on him or me. Anyone who would come to our team, if it was him or whether it was a Ryan Hunter-Reay, Will Power, you name it, our obligation is to create the best team possible.
For sure, we're interested, and we're chasing him. But I'm sure we're not the only ones. It would be great to have him. He has a lot of potential, and he's still a very young guy in racing terms. It would be great if we put something together.
As a father, I want to make sure he's in the best possible situation, wherever that might be. It would be fun, but only if it was the right situation, and if he was ready to be on board. But I think he's earned the right to be treated the same as a Franchitti, a Dixon, or any of those guys, because he's shown he's capable of competing against them. He's just been inconsistent. You can talk about strategy calls or whatever all you want, but when you're the focus, you achieve great things. For him, it's about being the focus.
And for us, it's about finishing strong these last few IndyCar races and moving up with our BMW. I look forward to checking in with you soon.
Bobby
Bobby Rahal and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing competes with Takuma Sato in the No. 15 Dallara-Honda in the IZOD IndyCar Series and with two BMW M3s in the American Le Mans Series. To learn more about the team, go to www.rahal.com. Rahal is also on Twitter at @BobRahal.