Dennis Reinbold 1961-2026

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.

Robbie Buhl made Reinbold's team a winner in the IRL. Robert Laberge/Getty Images

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.

RHR had DRR on the brink of an Indy 500 win in 2025. Jake Galstad/Lumen via Getty Images

“It still just doesn't feel right that he’s gone,” Hunter-Reay said. “He lived, breathed, and slept the Indy 500. It was everything to him, and it was what I think kept him going, prevailing through the fight against cancer for years. His dedication to winning the 500 and gosh, we're so close, but racing can be brutal in that regard. But I just can't say enough about him as a man, a competitor, a friend.”

Hunter-Reay remains inspired by his time with Reinbold across their three Indy 500s spent together, and looks to all that Reinbold built with his partners with DRR as something that will continue in his absence.

“It's a very tight-knit group, and that started with Dennis and resonates to the entire team,” he said. “It is very much a family atmosphere, more so than any other team I've ever raced for, and any other person I've ever driven for. To not get that 500 win for him still makes me sad, but they aren’t done. I'm just now thinking about his family and the massive void, but Chase Selman and Brett De Bord and Eric De Bord are some of the best I've worked with and more than anything else, I know the team and the operation is in good hands. There's still a bright future for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. But this with Dennis just kind of came out of nowhere and hit all of us, slapped all of us across the face."

Ongoing discussions to form a business alliance with Juncos Hollinger Racing that extends to the full season was a big part of Reinbold’s efforts prior to his passing and Harvey hopes his legacy will continue in the people who were fortunate to represent DRR. Brett De Bord assures that will happen.

“We will work tirelessly to carry his legacy with the same inspiration and pursuit of excellence that he modeled every day of his life, which includes winning the Indianapolis 500," De Bord said. "Now we have an even greater purpose; upholding and carrying forward the legacy of a man that meant so much to so many of us. When we do cross that finish line, we will know he was with us every step of the way and taught us how to get there.”

“Dennis had a very special talent that I think not many people necessarily have,” Harvey said. “He was able to make everybody feel that they had a special relationship with him, and I think that is an unbelievable gift that he's given all of us. In conversation with the team yesterday, one of the common themes was, ‘Man, I felt like I really had a special relationship with Dennis,’ and everybody is that way. So many people can model themselves off of Dennis about how to be a great person and a great leader. His passion and commitment for motorsport was second to no one.”