Early racing In 2005, Rahal won the
Formula Atlantic class at the SCCA Runoffs and finished fourth in
Star Mazda Series standings. After the season concluded, Rahal raced with
A1 Team Lebanon for the final three rounds of
2005-06 A1 Grand Prix season. He moved to a full-time ride in the
Champ Car Atlantic Series in 2006, where he won five races and finished second in the season standings. He also drove in the
Indy Pro Series event on the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in conjunction with the
2006 United States Grand Prix and finished second. Rahal would once again jump in A1GP's Team Lebanon car for one race in the second round of the
2006-07 A1 Grand Prix season. SpeedTV reported in August 2006 that Rahal would drive for
Newman/Haas Racing in the Champ Car World Series in 2007.
2007 On January 27, 2007, Rahal drove in the
24 Hours of Daytona. One of four drivers of the Southard Motorsports
Lexus Riley, the car ran into trouble early and finished 62nd out of seventy entries. On March 18, he drove in the
12 Hours of Sebring American Le Mans Series race for his father's
Rahal Letterman Racing team. He drove a
Porsche 911 GT3-RSR with two other drivers, finishing sixth in the GT2 class and fifteenth overall. On March 27 news reports from the previous summer were confirmed when he was announced as the second driver for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing in the Champ Car World Series and drove the No. 2
Panoz DP01 sponsored by MEDI|ZONE alongside his teammate, three-time series champion
Sébastien Bourdais. On April 8 in his debut in the Champ Car World Series at the
Vegas Grand Prix, Rahal hit the wall on the front stretch on the first lap and retired from the race. On April 15 at the
Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, he finished his first Champ Car race, ending up eighth. On April 22, in just his third Champ Car race, he became the youngest ever podium finisher in Champ Car history after finishing second in
Houston. Rahal completed his rookie season in fifth place in series points with four podium finishes but without a race win.
2008 With the creation of a single American open-wheel racing series for
2008, Rahal and the Newman/Haas/Lanigan team became part of the
IndyCar Series, including Rahal's first
Indianapolis 500. Rahal missed the
Gainsco Auto Insurance Indy 300 due to a crash in testing, after which his team could not get his car repaired in time for the race. He made his series debut at the second race of the season, the
Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and despite an early spin in the race, Rahal won the race by 3.5192 seconds from the two-time defending winner of the race,
Hélio Castroneves. He became the youngest person at the time to win a major American open-wheel race – aged – and the fourth to win in his first appearance in the IndyCar Series. The best finish Rahal would manage the rest of the year was a pair of eighth place finishes at Watkins Glen and Sonoma; he finished seventeenth in points, fourth among series rookies.
2009 Rahal returned to Newman/Haas/Lanigan for the
2009 IndyCar Series, taking over the No. 02 car with
McDonald's as his sponsor. He began the season by taking
pole position at St. Petersburg, his first in his
IndyCar career, thus becoming the youngest ever polesitter aged . This was the first time a Rahal had won an
IndyCar pole since
his father started first at
Toronto in
1992, which was Bobby's third in a row that season. He finished seventh after damaging the car in a first-lap crash. His season was also undermined by bad relations with his team-mate
Robert Doornbos – when Doornbos left midseason, Rahal commented "We could certainly have a second driver who is more of a team player." He finished the season 7th in points with two podium finishes. Rahal was linked with the
US F1 Team, the American-based
Formula One team, that was set to debut in the 2010 World Championship. The team's sporting director,
Peter Windsor, mentioned Rahal as a potential candidate for a seat with the Charlotte-based outfit. However, Windsor later decided against hiring either Rahal or
Marco Andretti due to fears that they would not be able to get their
FIA Super Licences in time for the 2010 season. Eventually, the team failed to compete in the 2010 Formula One season, with the team ultimately folding and banned from participating in any FIA-sanctioned championship.
2010 Rahal did not return to
Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing for the
2010 IndyCar Series, due to
McDonald's discontinuing their sponsorship to focus on the
2010 Winter Olympics. On March 10, 2010,
Sarah Fisher Racing announced Rahal would pilot Fisher's No. 67
Dollar General car in the first two North American events of 2010, the
Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and the
Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. Fisher was originally planning on driving the races herself, in addition to seven oval races, before deciding that putting Rahal in the car could be a benefit to everyone, including Dollar General, who are based in
Goodlettsville, Tennessee. On April 6, 2010, Sarah Fisher Racing announced the addition of the
Grand Prix of Long Beach to Rahal's schedule. Rahal's placing in those three races was ninth, seventeenth, and 22nd (retired) respectively. After the Grand Prix of Long Beach, Rahal was signed to drive for
his father's team,
Rahal Letterman Racing, in the
2010 Indianapolis 500. Rahal qualified in the seventh position for the race and finished twelfth. On June 10, 2010,
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing announced the signing of Rahal for the
Iowa Corn Indy 250 at
Iowa Speedway, filling in for the injured
Mike Conway in the No. 24 entry on a one-off basis. Rahal returned to
Newman/Haas Racing for six of the remaining 8 races of the 2010 season, starting with Toronto, and returned to Sarah Fisher Racing for the
Kentucky Speedway race. Rahal's 2010 totals included twelve starts for four teams and a twentieth-place finish in points. On October 10, 2010, Rahal finished runner-up at the RoboPong 200 all-star kart event at the New Castle Motorsports Park with teammate
Conor Daly.
2011–2012 Rahal signed to drive the No. 38 car for
Chip Ganassi Racing with
Service Central sponsorship beginning in 2011 as the team expanded from two to four cars and continued with the team into 2012. Rahal co-drove the No. 01 TELMEX/Target Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates car to victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona along with
Scott Pruett,
Memo Rojas, and
Joey Hand. It came thirty years after his father, Bobby won the race, partnering with
Brian Redman and
Bob Garretson.
2013–2023 From 2013 onwards, Rahal returned to his father's team
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. While a second-place finish at the 2013 Long Beach Grand Prix showed promise early in the season, 2013 would be a building year for the new partnership. 2015 brought great results for Rahal with three podiums in the first half of the season; second at Barber Motorsports Park, second at the 2015 Grand Prix of Indianapolis, and a third at the Sunday race in Detroit. . During the 2015 season, Rahal broke a 6+ year winless streak by winning the
2015 MAVTV 500 at
Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA. Rahal again won later in the season at the 2015 Honda Indy 200 at
Mid-Ohio. The win was especially poignant for Rahal since he grew up in Ohio and also put Rahal in the championship hunt for the first time in his career. Rahal ended finishing fourth in the standings after a disappointing performance in the last two races. 2016 brought another win to Rahal's almost decade-long IndyCar career after winning the
2016 Firestone 600 at
Texas Motor Speedway. The margin of victory was only .008 of a second, the fifth-closest finish in IndyCar history. In 2017, Rahal had six top-five finishes, down from eight top-five finishes in both 2015 and 2016, but he did pick up wins in both races at the Detroit Grand Prix (June 3 and 4). In 2018, Rahal scored a best finish of second from the streets of St. Petersburg and finished the championship eighth overall. 2019 marked the fifth-straight year Rahal finished in the top-ten for the
IndyCar Series championship, finishing eighth overall with a best finish of third at
Texas Motor Speedway. Rahal finished second at the 2020 Indianapolis Grand Prix before earning two third place finishes at the second Iowa race and the
Indianapolis 500 to finish sixth in the points. In 2021, he would only score one podium at
Texas Motor Speedway to finish tenth in the points, and in 2022, he would finish eleventh in points with a best finish of fourth at Toronto, marking the first year since 2014 that he had finished outside the top-ten in points. In 2023, Rahal initially appeared to miss out the
Indianapolis 500 after teammate
Jack Harvey bumped him out of the field in the last chance qualifying session. However, after
Stefan Wilson was ruled out due to an injury after a crash in practice, Rahal was chosen as the replacement driver for the #24
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing /
Cusick Motorsports Chevrolet. Rahal finished five laps down in 22nd in the race after being involved in an accident. After the Indy 500 however, Rahal experienced a rebound in performance, taking pole positions at the second race on the IMS Road Course and at Portland and picking up his first podium position on road course in years. ==Business interests==