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Graham Rahal held off Helio Castroneves in a four-minute sprint to the checkered flag Sunday to become a winner in his first IndyCar Series start in the rainy Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Rahal missed the 2008 season opener last weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway after a testing incident in his Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing. The 19-year-old took the lead from his father’s car – the Rahal Letterman Racing Team Ethanol entry of Ryan Hunter-Reay - on lap 64 and led the rest of the way to become the youngest winner in IndyCar Series history.

He became the first driver to win his first IRL start since Scott Dixon at Homestead in 2003, with Juan Pablo Montoya and Buzz Calkins the only other drivers to win in their IRL debut. It was also the first open-wheel victory for the rookie.

“It can’t get any sweeter than this, especially after crashing the car last week,” Rahal said. “Today was tough with the rain but we worked it out and pulled through. Hopefully, we will win a few more.”

Castroneves finished second, 3.5192 seconds back, followed by Tony Kanaan, Hunter-Reay, Ernesto Viso and Enrique Bernaldi.

“I think this is the first of many,” said Bobby Rahal, winner of the 1986 Indianapolis 500 and three CART titles. The elder Rahal lost a trip to the podium when Kanaan got by Hunter-Reay in the closing laps. It was Kanaan’s third consecutive third-place finish at St. Pete after placing second in the 2005 inaugural event.

“Third place isn’t bad after last week,” said Kanaan, who had an incident while leading in the closing laps at Homestead. “Points, points, points.”

Joining Rahal in the top 10 were four other drivers transitioning from Champ Car. Hideki Mutoh finished sixth, followed by Oriol Servia, Will Power, Justin Wilson and Danica Patrick.

The race, which ran on a two-hour time limit, began with a 20-minute caution period due to standing water on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn circuit. Competitors completed 83 of the scheduled 100 laps.

Racing began at the beginning of lap 11. Sixth qualifier Ryan Hunter-Reay spun heading to the green, falling to 19th. Three laps later, Patrick spun in turn 10 and fell to last in the 25 car field.

Marco Andretti and Mario Moraes both went off in turn four and stalled on lap 14th, bringing out the caution. Andretti was able to restart without losing a lap. The race restarted on lap 20 with Justin Wilson in the lead.

The next caution came out on lap 32 for debris in turn three. When racing resumed on lap 37 at the one-hour mark, Ryan Briscoe led Dan Wheldon and Franck Perera, who had not pitted under the caution.

A group of cars pitted on lap 42 for slick tires, giving the lead to Bernoldi. Andretti – who finished second in the season opener – snapped a half-shaft when he attempted to exit and was out of the race.

Viso took over on lap 54, followed by Bernoldi, Vitor Meira and Darren Manning, with the top four drivers pulling away.

On lap 58, Briscoe clipped the wall in turn 9 with his right side while attempting to pass Jay Howard’s fifth-place car, and veered across the track and hit the wall, tearing off both left-side wheels to bring out the fourth caution. The yellow allowed several traditional IRL contenders, including Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan – who had been more than 20 seconds behind – to close up.

Ryan Hunter-Reay and Graham Rahal stayed out when the leaders pitted on lap 60 to move to the front. On the lap 64 restart, with 24 minutes remaining, Rahal passed his father’s car to take the lead from Hunter-Reay, Castroneves took third from Vison, while Dixon passed Wheldon to take fifth. Simultaneously, Ed Carpenter spun and stalled, blocking the track, bringing out another caution.

Racing resumed on lap 67 with 19 minutes remaining, Rahal pulled out to a four-second lead over Castroneves.

Dixon retired on lap 74 while running fifth with suspension damage sustained from running over the rumble strips.

With eight and a half minutes remaining, Meira and Perera tangled while racing side-by-side, with Townsend Bell also involved in the incident that brought out the sixth caution.

Castroneves was at Rahal's rear wing on the final restart, but the rookie quickly pulled away.

Next up will be the final divided weekend for the open-wheel ranks. While the original IndyCar Series teams compete Saturday, April 19, at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan, the Champ Car teams will use their now-obsolete turbocharged Cosworth-powered Panoz cars for the final time at Long Beach, California the following day. Both races will award IndyCar Series points and pay the IRL purse.

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