Graham Rahal emerges from a meeting with race engineer Martin Pare and walks deliberately to the garage where the Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing crew is preparing the No. 02 McDonald's car for qualifications.

"How's it going?" Rahal announces above the din of air guns and revving engines on either side of the cinderblock walls.

Heads turns and a spontaneous progress report ensues, adjourning with a flourish of hearty laughs and handshakes, and Rahal moves to the perimeter to watch the progress and oblige a growing wave of autograph seekers.

At 20 years old, Rahal has inherited the leadership role at the tenured and storied motorsports operation, whose roots date to 1983 when Paul Newman and Carl Haas joined forces of finance and personality to compete in open-wheel racing. It's been associated with a lineup of drivers (Mario and Michael Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Paul Tracy, Sebastien Bourdais, among others) that has delivered championships, more than 100 victories and records over the years.

Click it: Rahal reviews his 2009 season | Bio, stats and more

Now it's Rahal who figuratively has taken the wheel of the team. That's pretty heady stuff, but part of the Ohio resident's informal motorsports education has been conducted at racetracks since he'd ride his motorbike around the infield of Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

"I don't think it necessarily comes easy to anybody," says Rahal, whose approachable and easy-going demeanor sharply contrasts his intensity on the track. "It takes quite a lot of thought - if you to say something, what's the right way to say it? - and a lot of things go through your mind. One thing was that at the end of (2008) I didn't have a teammate and if I was going to have a teammate rumors were they weren't going to be experienced. That was my opportunity to step out and be the leader.

"The team is very tight, but it was going to be a new challenge because it's a team that over the years has had a lot of very good drivers and a lot of guys who are very well-respected as team leaders. To live up to that would be pretty difficult, but I knew we had a long way to go to run with the Penskes and Ganassis of the world. We made some huge strides in that direction (in '09)."

Rahal, who had rookie Robert Doornbos as a teammate for the first 12 races of the 17-event season, recorded nine top-10 finishes and two pole starts to finish seventh in the championship standings. A top five (eight points shy of tying Danica Patrick) was blunted in part by contact at Indianapolis, Texas and Toronto, and a mechanical issue at Infineon (21st place after starting sixth). Rahal's PEAK Performance Pole Award in the opener at St. Petersburg gave him the distinction of being the youngest pole and race winner in series history (both accomplished at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg).

"He puts a lot of pressure on himself to be the leader, and he wants to be the leader," said his father, Bobby Rahal, who recorded the first of his 24 CART/USAC victories in 1982 at age 29. "You just have to keep it all in perspective, and I tell Graham that. Push yourself but keep in perspective that you have zero experience compared to these other guys, and not rest on that but at least understand that in race situations things aren't going to be the way you want because you don't have the experience to understand how things will ebb and flow.

"I think that light bulb burns brighter after every race, good or bad, in terms of results.

"I'm probably a little biased, but I think my opinions are probably felt be a lot of people. Overall, I think what makes the performances more impressive to me is the fact unlike when Danica came in she had great teammates in Buddy Rice and Vitor Meira, who did all the setup work. Graham has never had at Newman/Haas someone he could learn from so it's all been on-the-job training, which means it's going to take longer and there's going to be mistakes made.

"If you look at the difference between this year and last, he's obviously learning and the team's learning. It just takes longer when everybody is starting from ground zero. He hasn't had the benefit of driving for Penske, where he'd have Helio (Castroneves) like (Ryan) Briscoe had, where you had that kind of leadership and someone to tutor you as you go along. In this situation, Graham and the team are tutoring each other at each event. Given that challenge, I think they're doing a terrific job."

Two seasons under his brightly-painted helmet down before legally being able to be served alcohol (Jan. 4), Rahal is looking forward to seeing the relationships take root and regular rounds of success to follow in 2010. The opener is March 14 in São Paulo, Brazil.

"It's unfolded the way I like it," says Rahal, who recently returned from an IZOD TV commercial shoot in Panama. "There's still a lot of work to be done, but I think everyone on the team has been impressed with the way things have come together for us.

"I wish at times the results would have been better, but overall I'm pleased with the pace we've had."