"My dad built Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and poured his life into it, and our family has been part of the Speedway for four generations. Competing for a full season again is the truest way we can honor his legacy, and we intend to make him proud."
Derek Reinbold said those words on July 22, seven weeks after burying his father. Dennis Reinbold, the team owner who built Dreyer & Reinbold Racing from an Indianapolis car dealership into a fixture of the Indianapolis 500, died June 13 at 65, surrounded by his family after a fight with cancer. Now his son has agreed to buy a full IndyCar charter from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, a deal that returns DRR to full-time competition for the first time in over a decade and turns a grieving family business back into a race team that will show up every weekend.
A Charter Deal Built on Four Generations at the Speedway
The agreement, reached with RLL over the final weekend of the 2026 season's silly-season chaos, marks the first time an IndyCar charter has changed hands from one owner to another. Penske Entertainment handed out 25 charters to 10 established teams in 2025, capped at three per organization, modeled loosely on NASCAR's ownership system. RLL had built to three cars in 2022, but the third entry had struggled for competitiveness and funding for years. Rather than keep propping it up, Bobby Rahal, Mike Lanigan and David Letterman decided to sell it and return their program to two cars in 2027.
The rumored price tag was 13 million dollars, a number that instantly became a reference point for what an IndyCar charter is worth on the open market.
For Rahal, the sale carried a personal note. "I have always had tremendous respect for Dennis Reinbold, both as a fellow team owner and as a fellow automobile dealer," Rahal said. "His dedication to IndyCar and the legacy he built over many years earned the respect of everyone in the paddock." Rahal added that Dennis had wanted to acquire a charter from the moment the system launched and that the two men had discussed it directly before Dennis's death. "We're pleased we were able to complete this transaction, and we can't think of a more deserving organization to receive the charter," Rahal said. "It reflects Dennis's longstanding commitment to the sport and helps ensure that legacy continues."
The Team Dennis Reinbold Built From a Car Dealership
Dennis Reinbold founded the team in 1999 with the De Bord family and entered the Indy Racing League the following year, winning his first race at Walt Disney World Speedway with driver Robbie Buhl. He ran the Dreyer & Reinbold car dealerships in Indianapolis and Greenwood alongside the racing operation, and his team entered every Indianapolis 500 from 2000 onward, 53 cars in total. The best of those finishes came in 2012, when Oriol Servia brought a DRR entry home fourth. This year's race, run just weeks before Reinbold's death, saw Conor Daly finish 12th and Jack Harvey come home 22nd.
Derek Reinbold's statement traced that history back further than his father's own career. "Our family has been part of the Speedway for four generations," he said, a lineage that stretches to relatives who worked in Indianapolis racing long before Dennis ever hung a sign on a dealership. That's the backdrop against which Derek is now stepping into his father's chair as CEO, tasked with turning a part-time operation that had run selective races from 2013 onward into a full-season entrant again.
Derek also singled out the man overseeing the sport itself. "The NTT IndyCar Series is in the strongest position it has been in for decades, and that is a direct result of Roger Penske's stewardship and leadership," he said. "The growth of this series, on the track and off, made this the right moment for our team to return to full-time racing."
A Grief the Paddock Shared
More than 30 drivers have raced for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing across its history, among them Ryan Briscoe, Buddy Rice, Mike Conway, Justin Wilson, Santino Ferrucci and Ryan Hunter-Reay. When word of Dennis Reinbold's death went out on June 14, the tributes came from almost all of them.
"Dennis, what a pleasure it has been to be a part of your organization over the years," Conor Daly wrote. "The passion for IndyCar racing you had and the tremendous culture you built within the team is something to be extremely proud of. Can't thank you enough for the chance to compete at the front."
Jack Harvey, who drove for DRR at the last two runnings of the Indy 500, called Reinbold "a brilliant leader" whose gift was making every driver in his shop feel like family. "My favourite part about Dennis was his ability to make everyone feel special and that they had a special relationship with him," Harvey said. "What a beautiful thing." Ryan Hunter-Reay, who raced for the team early in his career, called the loss "devastating in so many ways. Lost a true friend, leader, fierce competitor, family man."
The team's own statement described Reinbold as "a proud son of Indianapolis" whose devotion to the Speedway "drove him every day," and it made a promise that now reads as a forecast of what Derek Reinbold has now delivered: "We can think of no better way to honor Dennis than to chase a victory in the 111th Running of the Indianapolis 500."
Why the First Charter Sale Changes IndyCar's Business
IndyCar's charter system, only in its second year, exists to give owners a tradeable asset that rewards long-term investment in the series, similar to what NASCAR built with its own charters. Until this deal, nobody had actually tested what one of those charters was worth. Mark Miles, CEO of Penske Entertainment, called the sale a milestone for the whole system. "The first transfer of an IndyCar charter is an important milestone for the IndyCar charter system and demonstrates that the system is working as intended," Miles said. "The charter system provides teams with a valuable asset encouraging their continued investment in the long-term growth of the sport while also providing new ownership groups with a clear pathway into the series. It's another step in strengthening the long-term foundation of IndyCar."
That 13 million dollar figure will now shape how every two- and three-car team in the paddock thinks about its own charters, whether they plan to sell, hold, or expand.
Who Will Drive for DRR in 2027
DRR has not confirmed a driver for its single-car entry, but Conor Daly, who has been the closest thing the team has had to a full-time face over its part-time seasons, is widely considered the leading candidate. Daly finished 12th in this year's Indy 500 for DRR and has deep ties to the organization stretching back years.
The deal also sent a ripple through the rest of the paddock. With RLL trimming back to two cars, rookie Mick Schumacher's seat for 2027 is suddenly an open question. Schumacher is said to have lined up a new personal sponsor interested in keeping him in IndyCar and has already taken meetings with other teams. RLL has said it wants to keep him too, but it's unclear how that would work unless Graham Rahal steps away or the team parts ways with Louis Foster, who signed a multi-year extension in 2025.
None of that uncertainty touches what DRR just accomplished. A team that spent 13 years on the outside looking in in a full-time sense is coming back, funded by a deal its founder wanted to make himself and closed by the son who watched him build it. Derek Reinbold will spend 2027 running his father's cars every weekend instead of a handful of times a year, at a speedway his family has called home across four generations.
Sources:
- https://racer.com/2026/07/22/dreyer-reinbold-set-for-full-time-indycar-return-in-2027-with-purchase-of-charter-from-rll
- https://www.wthr.com/article/sports/motor/indycar/dennis-reinbold-founder-indycar-team-dreyer-and-reinbold-racing-dies-at-65/531-a6b797a9-b613-4e27-88d3-fe0516ac98e8
- https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/07/22/dreyer-and-reinbold-purchases-rahal-entry-in-first-indycar-charter-sale/
