IndyCar: Could Dreyer & Reinbold Racing return full-time in 2019 season?

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing have not been a full-time IndyCar team since the 2012 season. Could that change in the 2019 season?

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing have fielded an entry in each of the last five Indianapolis 500 races as a part-time, Indianapolis 500-only team. While they have only fielded one entry in the race in years past, they are set to field two cars in this year’s Indianapolis 500, with Sage Karam and J.R. Hildebrand driving for the team in the race at the end of May.

However, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing have not been a full-time IndyCar team since the 2012 season when Oriol Servia drove the #22 car, which was Lotus-powered in the first four races of the season and Chevrolet-powered in the final 11 races of the season when the team partnered with Panther Racing, in his most recent full-time season.

In 2012, Servia delivered the team their top finish in the Indianapolis 500 in his first race as the driver of the #22 Chevrolet for the team after starting the race from back in a career-low 27th place. He finished the race in a career-high 4th.

In the 2013 season, Servia started out driving full-time for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, who still had their partnership with Panther Racing, but after the season’s first five races, he was unable to continue due to a lack of sponsorship. The team have not fielded a full-time driver in IndyCar competition ever since.

In the 2019 IndyCar season, however, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing may very well return to full-time competition.

Here is what 22-year-old Sage Karam, who has driven for the team in the Indianapolis 500 in three of the last four years and is set to do so this year for the fourth time in the last five years, had to say about the matter, according to Motorsport.com.

"“Obviously full-time is where you want to be [but] I’m just really focusing on the task at hand and doing the best job I can. If I can do the best job I can do and things go well, then I think the opportunity of being full-time will present itself later down the road.“You know, I would love to be in a full-time seat with Dennis. I think if we can have a strong showing here and hopefully we can get more partners to come on board, maybe that’s something that will be discussed. But as for now, I think he’s just focused on doing the best job he can, I’m focused on doing the best job I can, and we’ll let the rest just fall into place after that.”"

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Karam has finished just one of his four Indianapolis 500 attempts, and that one finish was in the first of his three attempts for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing in the race in 2014. In that race, he started in 31st place and finished in 9th as a 19-year-old.

Since then, he has failed to finish the race in two more attempts for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing in 2016 and 2017 and in one attempt for Chip Ganassi Racing in 2015, the year in which he drove in 75% of the season’s races for the team in the only season thus far during which he has driven in more than just the Indianapolis 500.

Here is what team co-owner Dennis Reinbold had to say about potentially fielding a full-time IndyCar team in the future, according to Motorsport.com.

"“Something that we’ve talked about with very great interest is trying to get back to full-time or even, to start off, a little bit part-time. We’re working on things. We’ve got some opportunities out there that we’re exploring and trying to see where they go.“To get two cars this year for the 500 is on purpose, because that sets us up to have equipment, so we have extra wheel guns, we have extra tires, we have extra radios, spares… That puts us in position to be able to try to expand in the future. And you would need all those pieces to be able to be a full-time team.“Behind the scenes, I guess, we’re working on that, but it needs to be a good fit, and of course my feelings towards Sage, I’m very excited about him. I think he should be a full-time IndyCar driver. I think he’s very talented and would do a tremendous job full-time in every race.”"

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Will Dreyer & Reinbold Racing end up returning to IndyCar competition as a full-time team in the 2019 season as opposed to an Indianapolis 500-only team like they have been in recent seasons? The possibility certainly exists, and even thought the 2018 season has not even started yet, it is never too early to discuss it.