IndyCar owner Dennis Reinbold passes away at 65
IndyCar Series team owner Dennis Reinbold has died at the age of 65. The Indiana-based car dealer and team owner fought a prolonged battle against cancer that improved before taking a sudden turn in recent days.
“We’ve lost our friend and our leader,” said Dreyer & Reinbold Racing driver Jack Harvey, who represented the team for the last two Indianapolis 500s. “Dennis, at the 500, you could tell his passion, his commitment was always unwavering, even when he was going through what he's been going through. I think it makes our last 500 extra special. We got to share it with him, and it is truly something that everyone on the team will cherish. As team bosses go, there was none better than Dennis.”
Through the determination of Reinbold and the De Bord family which co-founded the team, DRR earned a special place in the IndyCar paddock as the group that gave chances to drivers old and new.
Young talents like Graham Rahal, Sarah Fisher, Ryan Briscoe, Sage Karam, Roger Yasukawa, Mike Conway and Ana Beatriz spent time at DRR, and the team played an important role in the careers of veterans like John Andretti, Justin Wilson, Paul Tracy, Oriol Servia, Townsend Bell, JR Hildebrand, Conor Daly and Harvey. No shortage of Indianapolis 500 winners also made DRR their home as Al Unser Jr., Ryan Hunter-Reay, Buddy Lazier and Buddy Rice pursued glory with the storied team.
Altogether, more than 30 drivers represented DRR since it arrived in the former Indy Racing League – today’s IndyCar Series – in 2000 at the Walt Disney World oval with Robbie Buhl, who made an immediate statement by winning for DRR on debut and placing eighth in the championship.
Altogether, more than 30 drivers represented DRR since it arrived in the former Indy Racing League – today’s IndyCar Series – in 2000 at the Walt Disney World oval with Robbie Buhl, who made an immediate statement by winning for DRR on debut and placing eighth in the championship.
The victory holds as DRR’s only visit to victory lane, but it added more podiums with Buhl, Briscoe, Conway and Wilson, and secured four top fives with Servia in 2012 in what would be DRR’s last season as a full-time entrant.
Short on funding after the Indy 500 in 2013, the decision was made to place the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as the center of its focus. With its energies dedicated to the race that counted Reinbold as one of its biggest fans, DRR amassed its largest following. The local outfit, hellbent on disrupting the plans of its larger and wealthier rivals, punches well above its weight. Reinbold delighted in demonstrating the talent contained within its loyal group of employees; it’s a family tradition.
The team could have been called Reinbold Racing, but he chose to add the name of his highly influential grandfather Floyd “Pop” Dreyer to its masthead, who was responsible for igniting his unbridled love for the Brickyard.
Reinbold grew up in the shadows of the Speedway where living next door to Pop, an Indy 500 legend among mechanics and car builders and participants from the great race’s early days, stoked his passion for the event. By 1999, Reinbold’s success as a car dealer made it possible to join the IRL as an upstart effort that rocked the series and became an instant force among its established players. The manner by which DRR appeared and ascended was a perfect addition to the decades of family chapters that had been written in American open-wheel racing.
Reinbold can also take credit as the team owner who helped 2016 IndyCar champion and 2019 Indy 500 winner Simon Pagenaud find his way back to open-wheel racing. Having lost his seat after the Champ Car series folded at the onset of 2008, Pagenaud was unemployed when IndyCar’s split came to an end.
Through a number of starring performances for Gil de Ferran’s American Le Mans Series sports car team, Pagenaud’s talent was seen at the shared IndyCar/ALMS weekends, and with Beatriz unavailable to drive at Barber Motorsports Park in 2011 due to injury, the Frenchman was drafted in as a single-race substitute for the Brazilian. Starting 23rd, Pagenaud charged to eighth, and later in the year when Wilson was injured at Mid-Ohio, he stepped in again and took 13th on short notice.
Through the two impressive showings with DRR, Pagenaud was offered a full-time drive with the team known today at Arrow McLaren and went on to win a title and an Indy 500 for Team Penske.
DRR also added rallycross to its racing endeavors in 2016 where wins and championships in the sport burnished its reputation along with its annual efforts at Indianapolis where DRR stood as a recognized and respected threat every May.
Multiple top 10s have been earned at the 500 by Rice, Bell, Wilson, Servia, Karam, Santino Ferrucci and Daly, who returned to the team this year and delivered a 12th for the program.
Reinbold’s belief in drivers – including some on the backside of their best days – was unwavering. Evidenced by his signing of so many who’d lost their places at powerhouse teams and were searching for another opportunity to remind the paddock of their worth, Reinbold relished in proving others wrong. His little team, with one race per year to tackle the Penskes and Ganassis and Andrettis and McLarens, was the underdog effort to follow.
Hunter-Reay, the 2012 IndyCar champion and 2014 Indy 500 winner, re-ignited his career with DRR in 2023 and took the team to the brink of victory in 2025 when he led convincingly late in the race. But Hunter-Reay was kept out for one more lap than his fuel supply would allow; his final pit stop unwound DRR’s dream result as his Chevy engine fell silent on pit lane and refused to refire in a timely manner.
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