Verizon IndyCar Series driver Graham Rahal and his wife NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Funny Car driver Courtney Force always try to make it to each other’s races when they’re not competing themselves in their own series.
Another year of the two of them jet-setting to support the other has officially got underway this weekend, as Rahal flew out Saturday night from the IndyCar test at Phoenix International Raceway to support Force’s first race of the season at Pomona.
Force made it to the finals but lost to Matt Hagan there at the Winternationals.
Force had been at Rahal’s first race of 2017 as well, the Rolex 24 at Daytona, where Rahal was an extra driver on the Michael Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 team in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Daytona class. The IndyCar season kicks off at St. Petersburg on March 12.
As you can see from the below schedule, even though Rahal (17-race IndyCar schedule) and Force (24-race NHRA schedule) have less than 25 race weekends for their own series, they’ll likely both be on the road more than that, going to each other’s events.
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Here’s weekends where just one of the two is racing:
Feb. 26 - NHRA, Phoenix (Courtney)
March 12 - IndyCar, St. Petersburg (Graham)
March 19 - NHRA, Gainesville (Courtney)
April 2- NHRA, Las Vegas (Courtney)
April 9 - IndyCar, Long Beach (Graham)
May 7 - NHRA, Atlanta (Courtney)
May 13-28 - IndyCar, Indianapolis (Graham)
May 21 - NHRA, Topeka (Courtney)
June 18 - NHRA, Bristol (Courtney)
July 16 - IndyCar, Toronto (Graham)
July 23 - NHRA, Denver (Courtney)
August 6 - NHRA, Seattle (Courtney)
August 27 - IndyCar, Gateway (Graham)
Sept. 24 - NHRA, Gateway (Courtney)
Oct. 1 - NHRA, Reading (Courtney)
Oct. 15 - NHRA, Dallas (Courtney)
Oct. 29 - NHRA, Las Vegas (Courtney)
Nov. 12 - NHRA, Pomona (Courtney)
Race weekends where both drivers are racing
April 23 - IndyCar, Barber (Graham) and NHRA, Houston (Courtney)
April 30 - IndyCar, Phoenix (Graham) and NHRA, Charlotte (Courtney)*
June 4 - IndyCar, Detroit (Graham) and NHRA, Epping (Courtney)
June 11 - IndyCar, Texas (Graham) and NHRA, Englishtown (Courtney)*
June 25 - IndyCar, Road America (Graham) and NHRA, Norwalk (Courtney)
July 9 - IndyCar, Iowa (Graham) and NHRA, Chicago (Courtney)
July 30 - IndyCar, Mid-Ohio (Graham) and NHRA, Sonoma (Courtney)
August 20 - IndyCar, Pocono (Graham) and NHRA, Brainerd (Courtney)
Sept. 3 - IndyCar, Watkins Glen (Graham) and NHRA, Indianapolis (Courtney)*
Sept. 17 - IndyCar, Sonoma (Graham) and NHRA, Charlotte (Courtney)
*Finals for NHRA are a day later than the IndyCar race