PATIENCE AND THE ROOKIE; Graham Rahal is only 18 but shows maturity beyond his years.(Competitions of car racing)

Byline: STEVEN COLE SMITH

For those who wonder why Champ Car rookie Graham Rahal hasn't won a race, his father, ex-champion Bobby Rahal, has one word: patience.

That's also a word he uses a lot with Graham. "He wants to win now, and you want a driver to be that way,'' Bobby said. "It's easier to kind of detune a driver like that than it is to tune them up. He's got so little experience compared to most any one of these other guys.''

After all, Graham Rahal is barely out of high school. And while he did quite well last year in the Atlantic series, a Champ Car is a different animal: bigger tires, better brakes and more than double the horsepower.

"I told him, `Listen, this isn't the Atlantics; you're not just going to walk in here and kick everybody's butt,'' Bobby said. "Sebastien Bourdais, Justin Wilson, Neel Jani, Robert Doornbos-these are damn good drivers. He's learning just how much work, both on and off the track, goes into being able to run up front in this series.''

This is not to say he's having a bad year; he's not. After a 17th-place finish in Las Vegas, Graham was eighth in Long Beach, second in Houston, ninth in Portland.

It doesn't hurt that he's in the best equipment, as part of the Newman-Haas-Lanigan team, and that his teammate is champion and points leader Bourdais. But Bourdais said advice goes only so far.