After an up-and-down − and somewhat tumultuous − contract year with his father's team, IndyCar veteran Graham Rahal has agreed to a contract extension that keeps him with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

"I think we have an agreement, and everybody is happy with that," Bobby Rahal told IndyStar Monday in a press conference discussing the team's signing of Pietro Fittipaldi to drive the No. 30 Honda for 2024. "When you look at the kind of year he had last year, along with Christian (Lundgaard), with four poles (as a team) and within an eyelash of a fifth (at Mid-Ohio), that's the kind of competitive level we all want.

"And (Graham) wants that, too, as does Christian and now Pietro. I think we have a very good lineup of drivers for whatever the circuit may be, and I'm excited about the new year."

The news comes after a 2023 season in which the younger Rahal wasted little time voicing his concerns over the team's lackluster performance that lingered from a 2022 campaign that saw RLL's first since 2014 without a driver in the top-10 in points. Despite a pair of top-10s in the first five races, the 34-year-old was well-aware of his team's impending struggle to qualify for the Indy 500. He started practice for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing by telling reporters he wouldn't shy away from "looking elsewhere" with the end of his contract looming.

"I still enjoy (racing), no doubt, but I don't enjoy not being competitive. Everybody thinks I'm being dramatic, but the reality is true. I put my shoe on this morning, and as I'm bending over with my right leg, all the sciatic (expletive) that's going on in my leg, it freaking hurts," Rahal said mid-May. "I still have the fire, there's no doubt, but there's a lot of other factors that go into this.

"Do I see myself leaving at the end of this year? When my deal is up, do I see myself retiring? No, but I'm also not going to sit here and not run up front when I know I can compete with those guys. I just don't want to sit here and keep running around in 20th. Eventually, you've got to look internally and go, 'Look, am I the piece of the puzzle that's not really clicking here? Do I need to step away and bring in a different vibe?'"

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As he continued, Rahal noted that the team's major sponsors − including those on his No. 15 Honda − were set up for the next couple years, "but they all have my name in the contract, so where am I going to go?"

"Anything is on the table," he continued. "I've literally made no decisions, even with going somewhere else. I think I have a lot to add to the equation. Period. I'm very confident in saying that."

Five days later, Rahal's No. 15 Honda was bumped from the Indy 500 field by his RLL teammate, Jack Harvey, in a last-minute run after Harvey and his No. 30 had struggled all session to find speed for the 33-car field. Rahal was distraught, breaking down multiple times as his wife, Courtney, and their daughters consoled the 16-year IndyCar veteran.

Two days later, Rahal found himself back in the field after RLL's Katherine Legge and Dreyer and Reinbold Racing's Stefan Wilson crashed during practice. The collision left Wilson with a fractured 12th thoracic vertebrae that ended his hopes at fifth 500 start. In his place, DRR tabbed Rahal, whose No. 24 Chevy wouldn't immediately start at the command. Once he got rolling, he wound up finishing 22nd.

In the wake of RLL's No. 15 Honda missing the 500 field, the team overhauled its engineering and crew lineup. Within a month, Rahal was starting on the front row at Mid-Ohio, where he finished 7th. Two weeks later, RLL got Lundgaard's first IndyCar win at Toronto. Coupled with Lundgaard and Rahal's front-row sweep on the IMS road course in August − where Rahal would go on to finish runner-up − and Rahal's pole less than a month later at Portland, RLL starting feeling better about itself.

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Rahal hinted to reporters at the season finale in Laguna Seca that an extension was imminent.

"Everyone jokes, but the reality is I'm still not signed. I'm going to be, but I'm not (yet)," he said Sept. 8 of what at the time were ongoing negotiations with team co-owner Mike Lanigan. "Hopefully next week, we figure it out.

"My goal was July, but here I am."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyCar: Graham Rahal reaches contract extension with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing