As we count down to the start of the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season, Classic Rewind takes you back to the 2008 race on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.

We're counting down the days to the start of the new Verizon IndyCar Series season, here at Classic Rewind headquarters, but before we put the Wayback Machine on hiatus for the summer, we're bringing you another vintage Indy car race broadcast. This week, it's the 2008 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

The race was the first road/street race of the unified Indy car racing series under the IndyCar Series banner and marked the debut of Graham Rahal, who sat out the season opener after a crash and lack of spare parts kept him on the sidelines.

Tony Kanaan led the field after winning the pole position but the race was slowed at the start by standing water in the rainy conditions. Once racing got underway, pole qualifier Kanaan took the early lead, but a decision to pit under caution on Lap 17 backfired for both Kanaan and third-running Helio Castroneves, as most of the field elected to stay on track and the early leaders emerged in 11th and 14th places, respectively. 

Rahal, meanwhile, dropped from third to 23rd – resulting from a tap from Will Power on a Lap 37 restart – and worked his way through the field, and pit strategy allowed him to stay on track during a caution period on Lap 57. He restarted second behind Ryan Hunter Reay, who raced for Rahal Letterman Racing team, and passed for a lead he would not relinquish on Lap 65. 

To score the win, the 19-year-old son of 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal held off a determined advances from Castroneves, who was seeking his third consecutive St. Petersburg victory. Kanaan finished third in front of EJ Viso and Enrique Bernoldi rounded out the top five. Rahal became the youngest winner of an Indy car race, a mark that still stands.