ESPN Champ Car

Graham Rahal wants a new "everyday" car. As much as he enjoys his atomic orange Corvette Z06, he digs buying new rides even more, and a dealership near his home in New Albany, Ohio, has a ready-to-fire Porsche GT3 RS secluded in its back garage.

"Want to go see it?" Graham asks his older brother, Jarrad.

"I don't understand why you'd get rid of your Corvette," Jarrad answers.

"Just come," Graham says. "You'll think it's badass."

It's a Saturday in early June, on the eve of his high school graduation, and the leading American driver in the Champ Car World Series can finally taste freedom. Graham is chill -- a sandals and ringer T type of kid -- but the son of racing legend Bobby Rahal is a typical 18-year-old the way his Vette is an everyday car. He missed 83 days of school his senior year, e-mailing assignments from trackside hotels. He skipped his prom, instead flying his girlfriend, Lauren Hunter, to a race in Houston. In his bedroom, he stored his maroon, polyester commencement gown in the only free space he could find, near a minifridge, where it covered a mound of crystal racing trophies.

Rahal is America's newest open-wheel racing prodigy. Maybe, as some predict, he'll become a superstar, even on the grand stage of Formula One. And dropping the guise of a normal teenage life in Ohio is the first step. "I've had some success in racing," he says, "but I've never felt like I could give it my full attention."

When Graham, Lauren and Jarrad arrive at the car dealership, an employee chauffeurs the group toward a ground-hugging Porsche with a smirking grill. Already this week, Graham has picked up a new, royal blue Toyota Tundra and traded his mother's Audi SUV for a Porsche Cayenne (surprise!). For the Rahals, cars nourish, but they also have the shelf life of bananas. Graham's mother, Debi, guesses that in two years her son has called 15 cars his own. To purchase the $160,000 Porsche, he needs only his father's approval.

Graham drives for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing alongside Sebastien Bourdais, the preeminent Champ Car driver. Rahal's rookie season so far paints an uneven but encouraging picture. In his April debut at the Vegas Grand Prix, his car skimmed a wall and lost its right-front wheel -- on the first lap. Two weeks later he finished second in Houston, becoming the youngest Champ Car racer to reach the podium. After eight events, he's eighth in the standings.

"His name helps him go through the ranks a little faster than if he were a nobody," says Bourdais, the three-time defending champion. "He absolutely needs to show he deserves his place. And that's what he's doing this year."

"Maybe some of it is innate," says Bobby Rahal, recalling how even as a 10-year-old, Graham showed steady nerves and quick reactions while pinning the needle in his go-kart. "But in the end, it's about committing to making it work. It's like what you see with high school, the way he juggled this dual life."

For graduation weekend, Bobby (who co-owns an Indy Racing League team) flies into Columbus from Chicago, where he has lived since he and Debi divorced three years ago. He drives straight to the dealership. After a private chat, father and son decide that such a purchase deserves due diligence.

"I liked that car -- I wanted it," Graham says later, "but he's watching out for me."

The following day, the family snags bleacher seats in the New Albany High School gym. They're supporting the one Rahal who's carrying on the family trade. (Jarrad, who's 19, and sisters Michaela, 21, and Samantha, 15, have chosen not to work behind the wheel.) Graham graduates with a 3.8 grade-point average, but for now he's putting class work on hold. He elected to delay his acceptance to Denison University, his father's alma mater, and it's easy to see why. Even driving in the Toyota Atlantic feeder series last year, Graham earned six figures from endorsements and racing. His future earnings depend on just how often he wins in Champ Car.

A few victories, and he's a marquee name. A few more, and he might leave for F1. "With Graham," says Bobby, "we're still in the discovery stage of how good he's going to be."

After the ceremony ends, hundreds of New Albany grads and their families funnel into a courtyard.

As Graham poses with his friends, with Lauren, with his grandparents, Debi pulls Bobby aside. "Is he really getting that Porsche?" she asks.

"We'll see," Bobby says. "We'll just wait and see."

Chico Harlan writes for EPSN The Magazine.