Written by Archie O’Reilly
Team owner Dennis Reinbold says the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing (DRR) team is targeting 2027 as a possible opportunity to return to full-time IndyCar competition, coinciding with the series’ plans to introduce a new car.
“Obviously we’re pointing at ‘27 as a bit of a reset that there’s going to be new cars, new engine programmes coming in,” Reinbold said. “We want to look toward being part of that.”
DRR competed as a full-season team from 2000 until the 2013 Indianapolis 500 and has since fielded Indy-only entries. The team recently announced 2014 Indy 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay for a third successive year, alongside Jack Harvey, for the 2025 running.
“That would be a full reset and a full restructure,” Reinbold said of the team’s plans for 2027. “We would have to add a lot of people and a lot of depth. Mostly a lot of testing for all disciplines of racing to be able to go to it. Why we haven’t done it is just budget-related.
“We haven’t had the budget to be able to do a full season so we just focus on Indy only. We’re pointing toward ‘27 to try to grow our budget, to be able to do it the right way and bring in additional engineers and really do the testing to do it the right way. If we can pull that off, that’s our goal.”
Reinbold believes the introduction of a new chassis, planned for 2027 - the point at which the Dallara DW12 will have been in competition for 15 years through its various iterations - is the right time to target a return to the full-time grid.
“That’s the time to do it, when everybody starts from ground zero and builds from there,” Reinbold said. “That’s what we would want to do. For us to do it the right way, that’s the only way we would come back and do it full-time in ‘27, would be to do all the testing necessary to be competitive in every discipline.
“IndyCar is awesome: street courses, road courses, natural terrain, smooth road courses, short ovals, superspeedways. There’s a variety of racing. You can’t just show up with the same base package and expect to be competitive from track to track and discipline to discipline.”
The prospect of DRR featuring outside the Indy 500 before 2027 is unlikely given the team’s expertise is tailored towards the Month of May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“There’s a lot of work involved,” Reinbold said. “That’s just not where our strength and our expertise is at this point in time. We do focus on Indy with all of our resources and setups and everything. I’m not going to pretend we could go out to a road course or a street course or a short oval and be competitive.
“To go outside at this point in time with the teams as deep as they are, try to compete like we can do at Indy because we only focus on it, that’s not really a good plan. That’s why I said really pointing toward ‘27 when there’s a bit of a reset.”
DRR would likely have to obtain a charter to enter the series full-time after IndyCar formalised its first-ever charter system in September.
There have been 25 charters handed out to those that competed in 2024, with a three-car-per-team cap. Only PREMA Racing is currently set to compete as a non-chartered team with two entries in 2025.
If DRR or any other team wanted to race outside the Indy 500 - where no entries are locked into the field by the charter - in 2025, they would have to fight for the two non-chartered spots in the field and risk failing to qualify.
“[In 2027], the charter becomes an issue,” Reinbold said. “For the near future or for the next two years, it’s not an issue at all at Indy. I don’t think there’s any implication about the charter situation for the Indy 500 for the next two years.
“They have said they’re not going to carry [guaranteed entries] over to Indy, which I appreciate and hope that that continues long-term no matter what. Indy was basically founded on the fastest 33 go out and race each other, we see what we have. May the best man or woman win is kind of how it is.
“I like the purity of that, the history and nostalgia of that aspect of the Indy 500, just the traditions in general. It’s just such a great place to go to and be part of.”
Reinbold feels the team has learned a lot by focusing on the Indy 500, with a two-entry lineup in seven of the last eight seasons spanning to next year. And there are perks to focusing solely on one race as a team throughout the year.
“It’s an honour to be part of that programme,” Reinbold said. “We don’t take that lightly. We work really hard in the off-season. We’ve been working really hard. From our test [in mid-October], we figured out where some deficiencies we have as a team.
“We have to absolutely attack the new hybrid system and figure out how that’s going to impact our setups. It’s going to impact everyone equally. So whoever figures that out the best is going to have the better chance of coming out on top.
“We’ve dedicated our resources pretty much full-time. We worked hand-in-hand with Chevy, our partner, since the end of the race last year. They put their neck out to get us as part of that test we did in October.
“We’re working with them as well to try to develop and see what’s out there with the hybrid system. It’s going to introduce a lot of challenges for all of us. We’re focused on that. Head down and test, figure out what we can.”
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