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MILLER: Open-Wheel Notebook
RHR pays back Rahal’s confidence; who to prioritize: TV or on-site fans?
Robin Miller  |  Posted July 08, 2008   Indianapolis, Ind.
Rahal's own erratic path early in his driving career played a part in giving RHR a second chance to impress. (LAT Photo)

He was exactly what CART/Champ Car claimed it wanted. A talented, handsome, articulate American who came up through Atlantics and knew how to win. Stardom should have been stapled to Ryan Hunter-Reay's bio in the media guide.

But, despite a couple victories and some impressive outings for mid-level teams before being banished to Siberia (RocketSports), RHR found himself running a few Grand Am shows and testing a stock car in 2006.

He'd turned down a chance to go test with Chip Ganassi in 2005 because Champ Car was where he wanted to be and he'd been promised big things from Gerry Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven.

And now here he was with nothing.

Jon Fogarty, Alex Gurney, Rocky Moran Jr. and Buddy Rice (to name a few) never got a shot in CART but RHR had been abandoned by the series he grew up worshipping.

At 26, it was looking like open wheel was a closed door.

Then RHR got what most don't nowadays. A last chance. Bobby Rahal needed a replacement for his Ethanol-sponsored Indy car with six races remaining in 2007. He also needed some results because the season had pretty much been a disaster.

Out of single seaters since August of 2005, Ryan had never sat in an IRL car but immediately got comfy. He finished seventh in his debut at Mid-Ohio and sixth the next race at Michigan. He qualified in the Fast Six at Detroit and wound up seventh in the finale.

That earned Hunter-Reay a contract for '08 and Sunday afternoon at Watkins Glen he paid back Rahal and team manager Scott Roembke for their confidence.

"When I was on the bottom, Bobby gave me an opportunity and I'll never be able to thank him and Scott enough," said RHR standing in victory lane following his initial IRL triumph at The Glen.

"I had to show what I could do and make things happen and I drove as hard as I could last year in those final six races."

Rahal, who gave Bryan Herta and Jimmy Vasser a second chance, Jeff Simmons a shot, Rice a steady seat and believed in Danica Patrick, said hiring Hunter-Reay was easy.

"My own career wasn't a smooth progression," said the three-time CART champion. "I had side steps, backward steps, times when I was flavor of the month and times when people didn't return my phone calls, so I think I identified with where Ryan was at. It takes a long time to get up and none to get down.

"Ryan showed a lot of promise and I had a great belief in him, so it wasn't a difficult decision to ask him to drive for us. He's stepped up his performance and stepped up the team's performance as well, and we're seeing the results."

One car teams don't fare too well in today's motorsports world but the Rahal/Letterman squad has been as fast as its been unlucky until Sunday. Other than sixth at Indy, the results have never come close to representing the effort.

"At the beginning of the year, Bobby told me to go out there and make something of this," said Hunter-Reay, who crashed with Marco Andretti dueling for second at Texas in the closing laps. "And to make something of building this team around myself and we all get along so great.

"It's really a special thing to be a part of. The fact that we've been building and get faster and faster and faster is a neat thing. And to finally win is huge."

Obviously, Scott Dixon's uncharacteristic error (which also claimed Ryan Briscoe) opened the door for RHR's win. But he'd qualified third and run strong all weekend so he was in position and then made the most of it on the restart when he got past Darren Manning.

With apologies to Dan Gurney, score one for the all-American team.
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