Dreyer & Reinbold Racing’s purchase of Rahal Letterman Lanigan charter raises questions

UPDATED: After a press conference with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, it’s still unclear which drivers are affected, but the story reflects additional info.

• Dreyer & Reinbold Racing planning fulltime single-car entry for first time in 14 years
• Neither DRR nor Rahal Letterman Lanigan has announced its drivers for next year and beyond

• Late DRR owner Dennis Reinbold had vision to elevate team

  for past several years

With Wednesday’s announcement that Dreyer & Reinbold Racing (DRR), pending certain approval, has purchased one of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s (RLL’s) three charters, questions immediately surround both NTT IndyCar Series operations.

The charter signals that DRR will return to full-time status with a single-car entry for the first time since 2012, starting in 2027. The Carmel, Indiana-headquartered team has not disclosed the name of its driver or a sponsor.

RLL, too, still is mum about which two drivers will represent it on track going forward.

However, team co-owner Bobby Rahal alluded to the new Dallara IR28 chassis when he offered a glimpse into why RLL decided to divest itself of a charter. He said, “As we evaluated the long-term direction of our organization, we made the strategic decision to return our fulltime program to two cars beginning in 2027. We believe this positions our team to be able to maximize our level of competition while allowing us to focus our resources as we prepare for the introduction of the new car.”

In a video news conference midday Wednesday, key DRR executives gave a deeper look into their plans and thought processes.

Chase Selman, DRR team principal and chief operations officer, indicated the team won’t announce a driver anytime soon. “It’s simple,” he said. “We haven’t signed another driver yet. We’re throwing all the names in a hat that are available, and we’ll evaluate each one of them on their own basis.

“[Performing at Indianapolis] is obviously extremely important to us. But the simple facts [are] it’s about the championship, as well, now. We’ve got to make decisions for the team that are going to put us ahead and help us develop not only for next year and do the catch-up program but when the playing field is leveled, if you will, with the new car, who puts us in the best place for that, as well. A lot of factors we’ve got to put into play here. The next several weeks will be just that and deciding who it is.

“We’re active in identifying talent that we can bring in. We have been competitive at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but we have 16, 17 other races that we have to go be competitive in, too. And we’ve not been full-time, so we have obvious, perhaps, weakness or deficiencies in the road course and street course part of the season.”

DRR President/Chief Commercial Officer Brett De Bord said, “We would like to be two cars next year, but we’ve got to have the right conversations and make sure that’s the right fit for everybody. We’re not ready to make that decision just yet. We’re open minded on what’s next. In the future, not going to be bashful or shy about it; we do want to be a multicar effort. But again, the right opportunity has to present itself, and it has to be the right fit, and we have to be able to do it the right way. We don’t want

to add cars and add effort to the organization if we can’t do it the right way.”

He said, “When this charter became an opportunity for us, we jumped at it, and we had to do that. We didn’t know when the next opportunity would present itself or be available to us.

“First step, number one, was getting the charter so we can be full-time in the IndyCar Series. That was step one. Then we’ve really been sorting through every single day since all of these items that need all the cogs in the wheel, if you will, to make this a success.

DeBord emphasized that “we’ve got our work cut out for us on this one car and this first charter, so we’re not going into this underestimating the commitment it takes to run this and run it at the highest level. That’s anything from forming the right partnerships commercially, vendors, suppliers, all the things, ingredients that we need to have a winning effort. We have plenty of work ahead of us.”

“In terms of OEM, we’re not ready to speak about those details just yet,” De Bord said. “We’ve had meaningful conversations, and that’ll come out at a later time when we’re ready to make those announcements.”

On the financial/commercial side of the business, De Bord said, “We’re right on the cusp of budget season. As we have been putting this together and identifying our budget and projecting out what this is going to look like, we’ve been active with partners. We’ve been very successful, and I’m proud that we’ve retained a lot of the commercial partners year over year.

“We have some partners that have been with us for 15 years. We’ve been in a position where we’ve somewhat hit a glass ceiling. We’ve had a glass ceiling on us where we could only sell sponsorship around one race. Other teams that are full-time have more strategic things at their disposal. They can bundle deliverables with other races, other cars that have an entire year-round, 365-day-a-year model where they can activate with their partners year-round, but we’re a little bit capped to this point. With this opportunity we have the ability to get more strategic, more creative, more flexible and develop longer term programs because we just have more inventory now.”

Derek Reinbold—the organization’s CEO and oldest son of the late team owner Dennis Reinbold, who passed away June 13—said his team is “pursuing opportunities. We have not finalized anything. We’re not ready to announce anything on that front. The cost of running a fulltime IndyCar program are ones that we haven’t experienced in some time. We’ve got some work cut out for us on that end. We’ve been very fortunate to have someone like Brett on board to help us make that all work out.”

The DRR leadership is younger than their counterparts. Derek Reinbold is 34, Selman 31, and De Bord in the same age range. And De Bord said, “I think the youthful mindset that we bring is a part of who we are. We want to do this for a very long time. This is a generational project: [Derek’s] father, my father, Chase’s father have all been very active in the business.”

Then De Bord made a statement that is triggering speculation about the impact and dynamics of this move on the RLL operation: “I'd like to see some younger ownership as well. Graham Rahal is a friend of ours, has been for a long time. I would love for him to not only continue driving for as long as he wants to, but he's a very smart guy with a lot of business acumen that is one of our contemporaries that we'd like to see take an active role in ownership in the future, because we all have a passion for this.”

Within the charter system, RLL would have to jettison one driver. Currently, Graham Rahal is the team’s headliner, with 2025 series rookie of the year Louis Foster and pedigreed2026 rookie of the year contender Mick Schumacher (son f F1 great Michael Schumacher) rounding out the drivers lineup.

RLL was granted three of the 25 charters that the NTT IndyCar Series distributed to full-season teams in late 2024. The sanctioning body established the charter system, based on NASCAR’s format, to generate immediate value for team owners and their entries and is expected to grow over time. Penske Entertainment President and CEO Mark Miles said this first charter transfer “demonstrates that the system is working as intended. 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.”

Dennis Reinbold “was solely focused on this opportunity over the last two to three years,” DeBord said. He said the conversation with RLL “happened pretty quickly back in the middle of June. I won’t go into too many specifics, but from the get-go there was a real partnership and a willingness to work with each other to make this happen. It was all about the right fit, an appropriate fit to both of our organizations. I think we’re very like-minded in how we do things, both professionally in performance and technically.”

Bobby Rahal said, “Dennis had expressed interest in acquiring a charter from the time the charter program was established, and we had several discussions with him before his passing. We’re pleased we were able to complete this transaction, and we can’t think of a more deserving organization to receive the charter. It reflects Dennis’ longstanding commitment to the sport and helps ensure that legacy continues. I have always had tremendous respect for Dennis Reinbold, both as a fellow team owner and as a fellow automobile dealer. His dedication to IndyCar and the legacy he built

over many years earned the respect of everyone in the paddock.”

Selman said Dennis Reinbold “was all about people first, and the foundation of this team is based [on] who we have here. We have 10 full-time girls and guys that we've had for, some of them, 14, 15, 16, 20, 24 years. We couldn't do it without them. We believe that we have some of the most talented individuals in the sport, and we're going to build the team based off of those guys.”

He boldly predicted that “we fully feel confident that we can go in and win the Indy 500. We’ve, I think, proven that the last several years.” Moreover, he said, he has been fielding calls from throughout the series, from individuals inquiring about employment.

“So we’re pretty confident with our package there. We know that it’s an uphill battle at every other track. We’re not going to shy away from that. We know we have a lot of hard work to do. My phone as I sit here is currently blowing up with engineers and mechanics that are wanting to be a part of the program,” Selman said. “I think it's important to really nail down. Dennis built a foundation here of people, and that's what we will build on going forward.

“The consensus in this whole thing is the work is there. It’s going to start with people first. Before we go hire one individual for this new endeavor, we’re going to make sure the parts and the pieces of the puzzle work together first because it’s people first,” he said, “and that’s what Dennis was about.”

This past Indianapolis 500 marked DRR’s 27th year, fielding the entries of Jack Harvey and Conor Daly. DRR has a 100-year legacy of the two families’ participation at the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway, dating back to DRR team owner Dennis Reinbold’s grandfather, the legendary Floyd “Pop” Dreyer, serving as a mechanic for the Duesenberg team in the 1920s. DRR has qualified 57 cars for the Memorial Day weekend classic.