Senior staff writer
Longtime Indianapolis 500 team owner Dennis Reinbold would like nothing better than to return to the Verizon IndyCar Series full time.
He founded Dreyer & Reinbold Racing in 1999 and promptly won a race with Robbie Buhl in Orlando, Fla., in 2000. His team competed in the series until 2013 and has concentrated on a one-off effort for the Indianapolis 500.
Reinbold, owner of the Dreyer and Reinbold Greenwood auto dealership on U.S. 31, has seen a revival of the Indianapolis 500 with the 100th running two years ago and sees renewed interest in the open-wheel series.
“You got a lot more depth of teams that came in,” Reinbold said earlier this month. “Right now, IndyCar is growing. You can see it. You can feel it. … It’s a great place to be right now.
“I guess the fact that there are so many good teams and better-prepared teams, way better prepared than the early days, the field is way deeper than it was before by a long shot. That makes it harder to win. It makes it more competitive.”
He intimated that team owners meetings of today are far less contentious than meetings of previous years, and he is greatly impressed with the open dialogue that has resulted in the new aero package for today’s race cars.
“A lot of head-butting was going on; IndyCar is poised for the future, very well,” Reinbold said.
Then he turned his attention to the 102nd running of the Indianapolis 500.
DRR has two cars in the field: No. 24 WIX Filters DRR/Chevrolet with Sage Karam, starting 24th after qualifying at 225.823 mph, and the No. 86 Salesforce DRR/Chevrolet with JR Hildebrand, starting 27th after qualifying 225.418 mph.
The only one-off team in the 500, DDR has its first multiple-car team at Indy since 2011. During the offseason DRR bought enough parts to field two entries. Karam is with the team for his fourth 500 and Hildebrand for the second time.
“If we can get the new car running like the old car the past few years, we can contend with the top teams,” Reinbold said. “I’m not being cocky in saying that I believe Sage and JR can race up front this year.”
Reinbold’s grandfather, legendary flat-track motorcycle racer Floyd “Pop” Dreyer, served as a crewman on the famed Duesenberg racing team dating back to 1927.
DRR has had 37 different drivers in the Indy 500. Oriol Servia finished fourth in 2012 for the team’s best finish.
The team won the 2016 Red Bull Global Rallycross Lights championship and is in the new GRX rally series this season.
(Editor’s note: Tom Blattler of DRR contributed to this article.)