Written by Archie O’Reilly
Indianapolis 500-only team Dreyer & Reinbold Racing (DRR) recently revealed its drivers for the 109th running of the event next May. Briton Jack Harvey has been added to the two-car effort, while 2014 Indy 500-winning veteran Ryan Hunter-Reay returns for a third season.
DIVEBOMB presents the inside story of the Indy-only staple’s latest chapter after a recent media call.
Targeting Hunter-Reay from the outset
For DRR, unlike the remainder of the paddock, the sole focus year-round is the Indy 500. As one Month of May comes to a close, attention already shifts to preparing for the next.
Having continuity on the driving side is a challenge for single-race outfits given the desire from most drivers to be full-time in the IndyCar field. That has seen DRR lose Conor Daly, who finished inside the top 10 for the team in the 2024 Indy 500, to a full-season gig with Juncos Hollinger Racing, prompting the turn to Harvey for 2025.
A driver like Hunter-Reay is perfect for this sort of situation.
The former Indy 500 winner and 2012 series champion has had no real interest in full-time drives since departing Andretti Autosport in 2021. He stepped into the Ed Carpenter Racing fold in mid-2023 after ties were severed with Daly but that was never a long-term play.
At this stage in the 44-year-old’s career, Indy is his focus. And it will remain that way for the time being.
“I talked to Gil de Ferran about it at one point,” Hunter-Reay said ahead of the 2024 race. “He said: ‘You’ll know when that fire is not there. It’s very obvious.’ The 500, I think about it before I go to bed, when I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about different things I need to be on top of for this one race.
“That fire is burning as bright as it ever has.”
Hunter-Reay’s own mindset perfectly aligns with the ethos of the DRR team.
“When we bring drivers in, we want to keep them as long as it makes sense for everyone, as long as we feel like the hunger is there,” said team co-owner Dennis Reinbold. And there was certainly no reason to part ways with the experience and pedigree of Hunter-Reay.
After finishing 11th in his first Indy 500 with the team in 2023, the American had a successful 2024 campaign 2024 up until sustaining suspension damage after early contact and later seeing his race ended by an errant defensive move from Scott Dixon on the back straight.
Qualifying inside the Fast 12 the weekend prior - especially being up against so many esteemed full-season teams - was a satisfying feeling.
“It’s been a fantastic time that I spent with this team,” Hunter-Reay said. “Ever since the beginning, I really enjoyed the people there. That was the biggest thing for me, to really surround myself with some great folks.
“We all have the same agenda, right? That’s to win the Indy 500. We’re not there simply to participate. Last year, being the only Indy-only effort, getting into the Fast 12 was a huge accomplishment. We were strong all month. We’ve been strong each year we’ve partnered up together.”
DRR had been in talks with Hunter-Reay about a return from the moment attention switched from 2024 to 2025. Before being confirmed, testing with the team in October’s Indianapolis Motor Speedway hybrid test was a sure-fire sign that things were progressing in the right direction.
“He knows the situation with us,” Reinbold said. “We’re familiar so he’s pretty turn-key, plug-and-play.”
Signing “great guy and great driver” Harvey
The move for Harvey, who ran the majority of the 2024 season for Dale Coyne Racing after two challenging years with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, had been “some time” in the making for DRR after forming a relationship across the last year.
Harvey’s reputation in the paddock, according to Reinbold, is one of “a great guy and great driver”. But it was also frank conversations with Harvey that sold Reinbold on the idea of adding the British driver - with 93 IndyCar races under his belt - to his 2025 squad.
“I wanted to sit down with him face to face and see how much winning was important to him,” Reinbold said. “He convinced me that’s what he’s all about. That’s what we’re all about. That’s fit number one. If you don’t have that, there’s no reason to keep talking.
“I explained to him that I’m really blunt and I’m going to be brutally honest about how things are. In June we can be friends. Up until then, we’re going to work our asses off to win this race. That’s just the way it’s going to be.
“I didn’t scare him off when we had that conversation. He’s still around and likes the idea and bought into that. Everybody has to pull their weight. If somebody’s not… sorry, we have to move on to the next person.”
It helps the cause that Harvey lives near the DRR shop on the north side of Indianapolis. And Harvey’s professionalism, namely his willingness to embed himself within the team, has already impressed Reinbold.
By the time the signing was made public, Harvey said he had been with the team nearly every day across the week prior.
“He’s always available and ready to do whatever we want him to do,” Reinbold said. “In terms of driving our practice pit stop car in the shop or whatever, he’s going to be doing that, working with us and learning our system. I’m really impressed with him as a person and I like his dedication to how he approaches driving.”
A dream Indy 500 return for Harvey
While he raced the majority of the season in Coyne’s No.18 Honda in 2024, Harvey was forced to sit out the Indy 500 and watch from the sidelines as Nolan Siegel attempted to qualify - and ultimately fell short of qualifying - in that same entry.
“Not being a part of the race was a killer,” Harvey said. “I’ll be the first person to say I think I’m extremely lucky in life. No doubt we work hard for the opportunities we have. No one should feel bad for us in any of that capacity. I get to do this as a job. I don’t have to do this.
“But I would say when you can go to the track and you’re not under that pressure, I think you can see how insular your day and your week can become, that level of tunnel vision that starts to creep in.
“I still thought it was cool to be at the track and observe. I think how I was able to help Katherine [Legge] and Nolan in that moment was bringing a level of calm, which is also something I’d like to roll into next year.”
With a new perspective to boot, Harvey knew he had to do his utmost to be back at Indy - even if that is his only race - in 2025. Talks with DRR ultimately progressed in a fairly seamless fashion.
“I don’t know if I’d exactly say I was pestering,” Harvey said. “It was maybe getting close. I just really wanted to be a part of this programme.
“It’s a dream [to be back in the Indy 500]. I know people say that… it’s not frivolous. Getting any opportunity to compete at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for any driver I think is elite level. It doesn’t get better than that.”
What does Harvey’s 2025 look like?
So far, an Indy 500 deal is the only thing on Harvey’s agenda for 2025 after five successive years of near-full-season deals in IndyCar.
“The first port of call was to get something locked up,” Harvey said. “Doing this deal was the number one priority. We put all of our time and effort, resources into just locking this up. Why do we want to be here? Because we feel it’s the best shot of going into the Indy 500 and really being able to compete.”
Aside from the Indy 500, it could be set to be a quieter year for Harvey - at least leading up to May. There may even be non-driving options considered beyond that.
“I’m not anticipating doing terribly much before the Indy 500 because the focus is making sure we arrive in May in the best possible state from a preparation standpoint,” Harvey added. “What happens after May, I don’t know. Honestly, kind of just play that by ear.
“I’ve expressed an interest in some commentary work. If that progresses, I would say that’s a pretty fantastic opportunity. I think the people forget that in my heart I also am just a race fan. I love being in the IndyCar paddock. From that perspective, I have something that is a little bit unique to share.
“However, just everything around May is the primary goal, the primary objective. All of our desires are very aligned, which I think is why it’s going to make this May very good. Nothing is going to take focus off the 500.”
Regardless of whether he has a drive or not beyond the Indy 500, Harvey’s plan is still to attend races. This desire to be involved is also why he is relishing being able to drop in to visit his new team at DRR.
“I like being immersed in IndyCar racing,” Harvey said. “I like being around. It keeps my mind focused and zoned in. I’m 14 minutes away from the [DRR] shop - I timed it the other day. I told Dennis and everybody in the team: ‘If you need me, just ask.’ No ask is too big or too small. I want to be involved.”
Aside from the Indy 500, Harvey would be willing to knit together a late opportunity to run the IMSA SportsCar Championship’s iconic Daytona 24 Hours if that was not something to detract from his focus on the Indy 500.
“I just love driving,” he said. “Even if you’re not active in the car, I’m going to be very active in this space to make sure when we arrive in May we are ready to go, whether that’s pit stop practice with the guys, whether it’s me being physically fit and healthy.
“From [the 2024 season finale in] Nashville, I’m down 12 pounds. I take this seriously. I’m not here to participate. Whether it’s on track, off track, meeting with whoever and anybody, I’m in. I’m dedicated to this. It’s because that’s the level that it needs to be.
“What we’re all going to try and achieve would be life changing, probably the most fantastic thing I could ever achieve. At least until the end of May, this is my everything. Everything revolves around this. If it takes away, it’s temporarily going to be cut out and gone, then maybe we’ll reevaluate in June.”
With the Indy 500 programme secured, Harvey is relishing the relief of having a goal to work towards.
“The more that you don’t have something, that doubt starts to creep in, anxiety starts to build,” he said. “Everything’s felt very organic. I feel like I’m in a great place. This is an anchor programme for the entire year. We have one of the common themes as a very clear goal. It’s just a really uniting feeling for all parties.”
The allure of an Indy-only effort
While they may not be in the same race rhythm, there are plenty of benefits of driving for an Indy-only team that has spent the best part of 12 months priming their cars for one singular race with personnel that specialise in doing so.
“The Indy-only effort, when you get the right group of people together, has a lot of advantages,” Hunter-Reay said. “You have the advantage of focusing on the car, the build, the body fit, all the details that go into making a race car fast at Indy.
“You also have the advantage of getting into the Month of May, most of the other paddock spit out the backside of the [Indy] GP - they’re all tired, they want to go home. It’s just another day at the racetrack. For us, it’s quite a bit different than that.
“Disadvantages are that we’re going to hit our stride as a team in how the minute-to-minute goes on the radio, strategy, all that stuff… we’re hitting our stride during the race.
“We haven’t had a go at it in a race prior to that. That’s where we have to be very, very cognizant of making sure we’re on top of all that. Aside from that, Indy is what our passion is. Especially for me, the 500 is it. The rest of the season revolves around that. To be able to just focus on that one, it just makes it that much more enjoyable.”
Harvey, whose last Indy 500 campaign in 2023 saw him bump teammate Graham Rahal from Last Chance Qualifying with a dramatic last-minute run, sees the DRR opportunity as one of his best shots at Indy 500 success.
“Selfishly I felt like this was going to be as good a shot as I’ve had to go and achieve something really great at the 500,” Harvey said. “Everything for us revolves around this. It’s very much all eggs in one basket.
“We go in there, know what we’re doing, united and rally behind a common goal. There’s obviously disadvantages. We know them. We accept them. I just feel from my side the singular focus is more towards the positive than negative.”
Harvey views the decision to sign with DRR for his eighth Indy 500 as the best option, even if it means making a few sacrifices across his year as a whole.
“This was very intentional,” he said. “This is what I wanted to do. I just wanted to be in a really top programme that probably more so had that singular focus and effort, if that meant doing less races but perhaps a slightly higher quality.
“The cars that we’re about to field, I don’t think anyone’s fielding more prepared or loved-on cars than what we are. If that meant doing less races but to be in a position that I felt like we could go and compete, maybe win - let’s dare to dream - that’s what I wanted to do.”
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