Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has since moved to the northwest side of Indianapolis in Zionsville. But that still doesn’t negate the fact that this weekend’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is just as much a “home” feel as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is.

IMS is “home” because of proximity to the shop. Mid-Ohio is home because this is where the roots are.

RLL was born in 1991 in Hilliard, Ohio, just a short jog down I-71 from Mid-Ohio. However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Mid-Ohio and the Rahal’s go back years and decades even, prior.

Bobby Rahal raced eight years prior to starting his own team on his home track with Jim Trueman and later Galles Kraco. He won the pole as a rookie in 1983. He did so again two years later (1985). He also won two of his first four starts (1984, 1985) to go along with four consecutive podium finishes to begin his career here.

His passion for Mid-Ohio came from his dad, Mike Rahal, who would take a young Bobby to Mid-Ohio starting in the early 60’s. That passion has since been passed down to a next generation in Bobby’s son Graham Rahal.

For Graham, Mid-Ohio is a place that he has fond memories of off track too. A few years ago, he told of a sunglass story that had the media rolling in laughter. He got in his fair share of playful trouble here running around these rural grounds as a kid.

It’s also a place to where he longed for a day to do what his idol, his father, was doing in front of their fellow Buckeyes. Indy is special but here, it’s a bit more laidback and he can see how much of a rockstar that his father is treated on this facility.

One day, he dreamed he’d be in that conversation.

Now, he is.

In Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 (1:30 p.m. ET, USA, INDYCAR Radio Network), it will mark the younger Rahal’s 17th start on his home track. That will break a tie for most starts here between he and his dad.

“I’m excited to get back to Ohio for my home race,” said Graham Rahal. “It’s always a huge one for us every single year.”

Rahal notices the attention here. He notices the Rahal shirts in the crowd and is hopeful to put on a show for them in his No. 15 Dallara-Honda in the ninth race of the 2023 season this weekend.

While he’ll have 1 more start in front of the Ohioans than his dad did, his dad can also boast one more win (2-1). Graham won here in 2015 and is hopeful to add another digit in the win column soon.

“We’ve got some great surprises for people that are part of the Camping with Honda program,” Rahal continued. “It’s always fun to go on a campsite tour on Saturday night, seeing everybody and throwing out the goodies and doing the things we do is super cool and I’m looking forward to that.

“Ohio is a huge INDYCAR market. If you look at TV ratings – Dayton, Cleveland and Columbus are always some of the top performers and I’m proud of that. I think my dad is a big part of that and I think Jim Trueman is a big part of that, as owner of Mid-Ohio for a long, long time. Hopefully we can continue to build on that.”

This weekend could be a good one for the RLL camp in general. They’ve vastly improved on these types of tracks this season and while they enter nowhere near where they’d like to be yet, progress is being made, especially on these tracks.

On the Indy road course, all three cars qualified in the top eight including 2 in the top 4. Christian Lundgaard was on pole. It was the highlight of their season thus far and with how things have gone, I’m not saying they’re going to necessarily replicate that here in Mid-Ohio, but I don’t think that they could be too far off.

Rahal is always on to watch on his home track. He has nine top 10 finishes in his last 10 Mid-Ohio starts including seven of them being in the top six. He scored a pair of fourth place results in September 2020 and was sixth and 12th respectively the last two July’s.

“I do think we made good progress on our road course package at the Indy GP,” Rahal noted. “At Road America, we would have liked to be better in the race but still, I think we made some progress there and I feel confident in that and I think that we can be very, very competitive.”

I think his Dutch teammate may be a sleeper to pay attention to for an outright win.

In Barber, Lundgaard made the Fast Six. He’d finish sixth. The last time out in Road America, Lundgaard qualified and finished seventh. A pole and fourth place finish at IMS make him arguably one of the top drivers in the series today on natural road courses.

“We’ve been on a roll on the road courses this year and going into Mid-Ohio, I think we will carry that momentum as well,” he says. “I think we had a better car at Road America than the finishing position showed so going into the Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio, we’ll go in with some confidence and just get the job done. We’ll just show up and crack on. “

Lundgaard is eyeing practice this weekend to try some things that they’ve learned on his Hy-Vee No. 45 Dallara-Honda which could be scary for the field.

I also have my eyes on Jack Harvey. This will mark his seventh race here. In his six previous races, his best start of fifth and best finish of seventh both came in Race 1 in 2020. In the Indy Lights series, he won from pole at Mid-Ohio in Race 1 and 2 in 2014 and started second and finished 11th in Race 1 of 2015 and started from pole and finished 10th in Race 2 that same year.

After strong runs at road course this season for RLL, Jack hopes to carry the momentum over to Mid-Ohio.

“I like Mid-Ohio. I think it’s a pretty special race for the team, especially Bobby and Graham and the longtime employees of the team,” Harvey said. “Every time we go there, you certainly feel that support for us all.”

Mid-Ohio may be far from Harvey’s English homeland, but this track holds a special place in Harvey’s heart too.

“Mid-Ohio is the place I got my first win in North America,” he says. “Even though it was in Indy Lights. I feel like we’ve always been quick there in an Indy car. I think we’ve shown this year that the road course car has been good, but it can also be up and down at times. If we hit the right window, we’ve got a car for sure that’s going to be in the top-10 so the expectation for Mid-Ohio right now has got to be to try and park our No. 30 Permco Honda into the top-10 and just have a smooth weekend. I believe it’s a realistic expectation for us this weekend.”

Harvey, now with the hometown team at RLL, has two top 10 finishes in his last five Mid-Ohio starts and hungry for a win. He also swept the weekend in Mid-Ohio in Indy Lights competition in 2014 too.