David Letterman talks Rahal, possible IndyCar series title

David Letterman wants to believe. But he’s reticent. He’s never been this close before and he can almost anticipate the weight of the IndyCar championship trophy in his hands. It would feel wonderfully heavy after two decades of waiting.

But the recently retired late-night talk show host and television icon has been around this emotionally wrenching sport long enough - as a fan growing up in Indiana, as a co-owner of a team since 1996 that has evolved into Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing - to understand that hope cannot be fully indulged until a trophy is being cradled.

That lesson was learned in his greatest motorsports accomplishment so far, when in 2004 his team won the Indianapolis 500 with Buddy Rice. And it’s a lesson he will apply despite temptation as he watches driver Graham Rahal attempt to overcome a nine-point deficit to leader Juan Pablo Montoya with two races left.

After spending 19 years as a partner with co-owner Bobby Rahal and watching his son, Graham, grow from boyhood, Letterman knows there’s more to the story than a trophy. A father to Harry, 11, who also has had his heart broken by racing, Letterman wants this on many levels.

But he keeps harkening back to advice from a former team executive in the waning laps of that 2004 Indianapolis 500 as Rice circled to what seemed like an inevitable victory under caution.

“It’s kind of a razor’s edge because you want it to come true so desperately,” Letterman told USA TODAY Sports, “but the lesson I learned from the late Scott Roembke is: it’s racing and you can’t even pretend that it’s going to come true until they drop the checkered flag.”

In an exclusive interview, Letterman spoke about his lifetime in racing, suggestions for improving it, the kid who followed in his father’s footsteps, how Dario Franchitti made Harry very sad, automatic stairlifts, and the Kardashians’ weight-loss product. It’s been an interesting ride.

BJ: How does it feel getting this close to the potential first IndyCar championship?

DL: I have to choose my words carefully because over the years, this has not been on the horizon, I don’t believe. I don’t think we’ve even been close to the horizon with something like this, and I think the last driver to win (an open-wheel championship) for Bobby’s racing team -- in fact, a championship, is Bobby (in CART in 1992) -- and then the other day someone said to me when Graham won at Fontana, it had been over 120 some races between that win and the win in St. Pete (in 2008), which I just found to be a jaw-dropping statistic. So this is delightfully new to me and, you know, there’s always a chance it couldn’t happen because racing is life and anything can happen in either.

But to now all of a sudden be nine points away from this coming to pass, it does provide you with a little giddiness. But I am reminded when we won the 500 and it was a rain-shortened race that finished under a yellow and a white, I think, because it was raining and there was one lap to go and I looked at Scott Roembke, who was on the timing bench there, and I sort of smiled at him and he looked at me and he frowned. He waved it off. We had one lap to go under yellow and he still wasn’t willing to concede that this was in the stars. So that was a lesson for me that day even though we did go on, Buddy Rice went on to win. So it’s new territory. I’m being cautious because I have learned that about racing, but you can’t help but think the kid’s gonna win. Was that a little long-winded?

BJ: That’s perfect. Long-winded is awesome. We love long-winded. The longer the wind the better the answer. I am all on board with that.

A: All right.

Q: How do you think this would compare to winning the Indianapolis 500?

A: To me, the idea of winning the championship … I’ve won some awards and have been very lucky in my life, because of my team, to have won some awards and then now in my racing life to have won the Indianapolis 500. And the IndyCar championship, that’s pretty good. I don’t know what else there would be that you would even care about. So, what a gift. These guys all flatter me because I have nothing to do with it. So Graham gets to be the champion. He deserves it. The team deserves it, but I also, my name will be somewhere in the paper. (laughing)

It’s fantastic. It’s great. What did I really do here? Well, I didn’t really have to leave the house much.

Q: What is your daily level of involvement with the team? Call asking about how the car is running?

A: I’m fascinated by that sort of thing and when I go to races, it has changed so much since I first became interested that I now no longer understand exactly what’s going on, other than the balance of the car, aerodynamically, the downforce and the power plant. Everything else … I mean if you take a look at the aerodynamic packages on these cars since they’ve added the rear cowling, you’d have to get an HVAC guy here to fine-tune them. I don’t know what’s going on. But it still, it’s interesting.

Graham is driving in a different way this year that I think (it) is noticeable even to casual race fans. I’ve not seen him driving the way he is now. And it’s confidence … I kept trying to think, where did this confidence come from? Because he didn’t have it a year ago, and what is significantly different about the team this year from last year? And I don’t know. Did he bring the confidence to the team? I suspect that something internal in the team gave him the confidence and then he rewarded their confidence with his own. He also seems like he’s in tremendous physical condition and then people invoke the fact that, “Well, he’s also getting married.” And I think being … Let me just say this: being married has made me far more confident than I have ever been in my entire life.

Q: Everyone loves a father/son story. What would this one mean to Bobby Rahal?

A: I can only pretend to know, but I think it’s a pretty good hunch: he would be delighted. First of all, I remember years and years and years and years ago, Bobby and I would talk about Graham. And Bobby would say to me, “Thank God Graham is going to be a tall kid, so he won’t mess around with open wheel racing.” So I thought, “Yeah, OK, good.” So, I could tell there was some trepidation on Bobby’s part, that Graham might be racing in, obviously, a series that is perhaps more dangerous than sedans or saloon cars or whatever you call ‘em, stock cars. And then, lo and behold, Graham’s racing open wheel cars and Bobby and Graham had gone to Europe for a test and this was when Graham (is) still really a kid, 17, 18, 19, and they went to some course testing for, it may have been a BMW connection, I don’t know, and they flew the all-night flight to Europe and they get there and they go off to the race track and he said Graham was -- pick-a-number-seconds - quicker than the track record and at that point I thought, “Oh, dear. He really is the real thing.” So I think this is something Bobby has known could happen. Bobby understands the frustrations and the vagaries of racing and now it is about to happen, we believe. He has to be delighted. The other story: what if Graham spent his life as a mid-field driver? What would that do to Bobby? That’s not what you want. So of course, he’s got to be over the moon about this.

Q: Will you be there to revel in person?

A: We’re trying to do one or the other. Sonoma (Raceway on Aug. 30) would include the -- and I can’t even say this -- would include the victory banquet the next night, but that’s something Scott Roembke would say to me, “No, no, no. We’re not even making plans. Don’t bring your tuxedo, dumb ass.” So I can’t even talk like that.

For me, the scenario would be he either goes to Sonoma in the championship points leads or he goes to Sonoma and overtakes the leader and wins it in the last race. That would be tremendous for me. I think the team would probably like it sewn up before they have to go to Sonoma.

The difference now is nine points. Is that where we’re at?

BJ: Nine now, but double points at Sonoma.

A: Yeah, the double points. I remember that Formula One used to be, if you won a race, you got six points, if you came in second, you got four and then if you came in third, you got three, and then, you know, that was it. Maybe fourth got one, I don’t know. And know it’s double points. It’s like, what is this? Is this something Alex Trebek came up with? It’s like playing Double Jeopardy.

Q: You don’t want it to be easy to understand do you?

A: (laughs) I don’t know. I just desperately want things to go Graham’s way. He’s a tremendous kid. … So now, the thing of it is, with this kind of success, and I think this is Graham’s contract year, if Graham hadn’t done so well this year, then maybe he’s thinking, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t be driving with my old man.’ So now, I think that issue is resolved. I think also it means you get the greater attention from sponsors, potentially making the team even stronger next year. So this would work out in several different ways. It would be just great for everybody.

BJ: Sounds like Bobby better sell some more BMWs.

A: (laughs) I gotta get me a car dealership. Everyone I know has car dealerships. This is the way of the future. Or, I guess, the future is over. I don’t know. But I gotta get a dealership.

Q: How did you go from fan to owner?

A: I got into it in 1995 and I think the very next season was the Tony George-Indy Racing League/Champ Car split, so we were in the woods for a long, long time. I think in those days we ran the (U.S. 500) on Memorial Day or the day before the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race or something because we were going to show Tony George. And so everything seemed to be solid then. The money was still there, (team owner Roger) Penske was still there, the big sponsors were still there, and Tony George put together a league using old Champ Car-Indycar equipment, had meager sponsorship but yet he cobbled it together. And then like on the first lap of the U.S. 500 there was this horrific crash and took out a third of the field and the TV coverage was delayed as they tried to sweep up the track and everybody thought ...”Oh … well. ...”

And then that was kind of a foreshadowing of really what happened. Slowly, but surely, the power and prestige of Indycar eroded and then finally everybody had to come back to (Indianapolis Motor) Speedway and now it’s just the one sanctioning body. So, I got in at the end of the heyday. I think our sponsors in those days were Miller and Shell Oil, were our principal sponsors and maybe one or two other big deals and then compared to what people … It’s tough fighting for … I think the most unusual sponsor we had was Acorn automatic chair elevator lifters. But they wanted to go racing for a couple of races and then the year before that we had some affiliation with some product that one of the Kardashian women was owning or promoting or something. But, you know, if you want to go racing, that’s just fine. But it certainly has changed. And then of course, I think, after the split, obviously, open wheel racing lost quite a lot of ground to NASCAR and then the big money went there, I think, just because, well, ‘it’s more stable than these open wheel guys.’ They went from Unser and Foyt and Andretti and Rahal and names everybody knew and knew year after year after year to suddenly, well, ‘Who’s Buddy Lazier? Where does he run?’ It just got too confusing.

So, yeah, everything was great until I got in. And I think largely it’s my fault.

BJ: Well, I’m glad someone finally stood up and took the blame for it.

A: (Chuckling)

Q: So how do you bring it back?

A: You know what? And this is just my opinion, I have not shared this with anybody … I understand why they put the cowling, changed the body shape in terms of driver safety. I understand that. They almost look like sports cars now. Like, the year that Bobby won the 500, for example, in ‘86, if you look at those cars, they’re completely different and they were not all identical. Now, they were unsafe. But there’s got to be a way to make them safer and still not have them be cookie-cutter cars, you know? If you (look) at Formula One - now again, we’re talking about a program that’ll cost you two or three hundred million dollars a year to run and we don’t want that, either - I just would like to see the cars, I’d like to see true open wheel and I’d like to see them made as safe as possible, I’d like to see the regulations for the aerodynamics, making them as safe as possible. I think the reaction to tragic death is normal, I just wonder if there is a way now to walk that back and make it safer and make them a little more appealing in terms of car-to-car racing.

Q: Do you get asked to lend your fame to the series much?

A: It used to be great fun for me when I had a television show and we would have the championship winner on, the Indianapolis 500 winner on. Any time anyone from our team did well we would put the video tape of it on. When Graham won his first race we would have him on. And we would send members of the staff out to the race and we would video-tape pieces and we would put them on. And anything (IndyCar) did ask, we would try to do because I just felt like the only place you really get motorsports information in this country on a regular basis is where you get motorsports information. To get it out to a broader audience, put it on a late night TV show or wherever else you can. So I was always eager. I loved doing that. I was there at the Speedway a couple weeks ago, about a month ago I guess, and we did some things for a sponsor and I got to drive one of the cars and so I did that and they were very generous and that was great fun. So, anything they want me to do, I’m more than happy. And I don’t think we’ve ever said ‘no’ to anything that IndyCar has asked and I don’t think we’ve said ‘no’ to anything the Speedway has asked. So I love doing that.

Now, it’s a little difficult when I don’t have a TV show. It was great for us. Here’s something we can do for two or three minutes and by the way, these drivers were always great guests. They’re smart, young, articulate guys, men and women. I don’t know they’re wildly intelligent. They’re not cowboys. Nothing wrong with cowboys, of course, but they’re not what a lot of people imagine race car drivers to be. So it was always a good combination for us and I hope the Speedway and IndyCar benefitted from it. My disappointment now is I can’t do for them as much as I once did because somebody decided to retire.

Q: Graham hopes your son, Harry, will get you out to the track more. Possible?

A: I think it was (then-RLL driver) Takuma Sato almost won the damned race, the Indianapolis 500 race (in 2012), and that really, it broke Harry’s heart because he didn’t understand what Scott Roembke knew.