A year ago, making his IndyCar Series debut as a 19-year-old, the second-generation driver was the surprise winner of the Honda Grand Prix, holding off two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves in a dramatic finish to become the youngest winner in a major open-wheel event.
Driving for longtime Champ Car powerhouse Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, one of the teams transitioning to the newly unified IndyCar Series in 2008, Rahal then struggled most of the season. He crashed out of seven races and wound up 17th in the points.
Friday, the first day of practice for the season-opening St. Petersburg race, it was like turning back the clock. The youngster was back on top of the speed chart, leading the way with a lap of 1 minute, 3.407 seconds.
"Obviously, I love it,"' Rahal said of the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary downtown circuit. "I've always been the type of guy that I absolutely love street racing, even opposed to regular road courses. It's been that way since I drove go-karts.
"This is the toughest track I've been to. There's a lot of corners on this track where it's very easy to make a mistake. But, as far as what brings it out of me (here), I knew the whole offseason we really developed the cars. In preseason testing, we only did a couple of days on road courses, but I could already tell that the cars were better than they had been. And this just proves it."
The son of three-time series champion and 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal doesn't make excuses for his performance last season.
"Last year, I made a lot of mistakes while learning the cars," he said. "It was nice to win here, but it almost made the start too sweet because then we expected the same at every other road course we went to and we were challenged at every place we went to."
With heavy rain in the morning, the first practice session was almost a waste of time. Former series champion Tony Kanaan didn't even bother going out.
"There was nothing we could learn in the rain on a dirty track," said the Andretti Green Racing driver, who wound up fifth in the afternoon session.
Justin Wilson, Rahal's former teammate who now drives for Dale Coyne Racing, was another surprise Friday as he turned the second best lap of the day at 1:03.588.
"I'm very pleased with the progress," Wilson said. "But I think this afternoon is not a true reflection of what we can do or what everyone else can do because it was pretty messy out there at the end. With 22 cars, everyone is eager to get the season started, so there were lots of little incidents going on out there.
"But I think we are in good shape and, hopefully, we can challenge for the pole position tomorrow."
The Brit was followed by Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Dario Franchitti, the 2007 Indy winner and IndyCar champion, returning to the series after spending part of last season in NASCAR, and HVM Racing driver E.J. Viso.
Reigning champion and preseason favorite Scott Dixon was seventh overall, while fan favorite Danica Patrick, the only woman entered here, was 10th.
There were several spins Friday, but the most serious incident came on pit road during the afternoon practice when AGR's Hideki Mutoh, leaving his pit, slammed into the right rear of the car driven by Panther Racing's Dan Wheldon, sending the former series champion hard into the pit wall.
The collision ended Wheldon's session and prompted IndyCar officials to hit Mutoh with a penalty, keeping him in the pits for 10 minutes for avoidable contact.
