Racing Loses Two Giants of the Sport in NASCAR, INDYCAR

Over the past couple of weeks, the sport of auto racing lost a pair of men who were large in terms of driving, broadcasting and racecar ownership. Ned Jarrett and Dennis Reinbold were major actors in motorsports and they will be missed.

Dennis Reinbold, whose Dreyer & Reinbold team is one of the longer-lived entities in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES died June 14, at 65, after a long bout with cancer. His team, which has fielded cars in the Indianapolis 500 in excess of 25 years, was a successful Indianapolis vehicle dealer who formed Dreyer & Reinbold Racing in 1999. The team’s name paid tribute to his family’s long legacy in the sport; Reinbold’s grandfather Floyd “Pop” Dreyer was an active crew member and chief mechanic at the Indy 500 and was known for his prowess building championship-winning sprint cars, midgets and quarter-midgets.

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing began competing in the Indy Racing League in 2000 as a full-time entrant, winning the season opener at Walt Disney World Speedway with driver Robbie Buhl as its sole victory to date. The team scored a pair of second-place results with Justin Wilson in 2010 and four third-place finishes between 2001 and 2012, when Dreyer & Reinbold ceased full-time operation, focusing solely on the Indianapolis 500 from 2014 onwards.

Despite their single-race status, the team had a full-time crew working to prepare cars for the Indy 500 each May. And despite their single-race status, Dreyer & Reinbold attracted more than 30 outstanding racers to their team, including 2012 Indy 500 race winner Ryan Hunter-Reay, JR Hildebrand, Townsend Bell, Sage Karam (in a five-race stint during the 2020 pandemic), two-time Indy 500 winner Al Unser Jr., 2004 winner Buddy Rice, 2019 winner Simon Pagenaud, Paul Tracy, Sarah Fisher  and Conor Daly, who this year led four laps in the 2026 race and finished 12th from eighth on the grid. The team’s best fourth-place finish in the 500 was recorded by Oriol Servia in 2012, but Reinbold’s greatest source of pride is that all of his 53 car entries have qualified for the Indianapolis 500 starting field.

Reinbold had been battling cancer and it was the team who announced his passing: “We are heartbroken to share the news that our owner, leader and friend, Dennis Reinbold, has passed away peacefully, surrounded by loving family. We ask you to join us in supporting the Reinbold family and respecting their privacy during this painful time. Dennis,” they said, “was a proud son of Indianapolis. He built a successful family of automobile dealerships across the state, and he loved the community of Indianapolis that gave him so much in return.

“That same devotion fueled his passion for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway: its history and the relentless pursuit of an Indy 500 win drove him every day. We can think of no better way to honor Dennis than to chase a victory in the 111th Running of the Indianapolis 500. We ask race fans to join us in remembering the man, his passion for our sport and the memories we shared.” Dreyer & Reinbold’s team partners, Chase Selman, Brett De Bard and Deric De Bard will continue operations of the team, which began a technical and engineering alliance with fellow Chevrolet squad Juncos Hollinger Racing earlier this year.

In addition to its INDYCAR and Indianapolis 500 alliances, Dreyer & Reinbold entered a variety of rallycross contests, starting in 2016. Wins and championship titles soon followed and continued for the squad in this type of motor sport.

Ten days prior to Reinbold’s death, two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Ned Jarrett passed at the age of 93, due to natural causes, his family said. Ned Jarrett had a long career as a NASCAR driver and later segued to the broadcast booth, where he was able to call the final laps of son Dale’s first Daytona 500 victory in 1993. Ned Jarrett earned his championship titles in 1961 and 1965; when Ford announced they were withdrawing from NASCAR after the 1965 season, Jarrett decided that was the optimal time to retire from driving – at age 34. To date, Jarrett is the sole driver to retire as a NASCAR champion. 

Jarrett began his broadcasting career while still driving, doing radio shows from his North Carolina location. He joined MRN Radio in 1978 as a radio broadcaster and became a CBS pit reporter from 1979 through 1984. He was later a color analyst for ESPN (1988-2000). No one who heard his comments on Dale Jarrett’s 1993 Daytona 500 win will forget them: “It’s the Dale and Dale show,” Jarrett said as his son battled The Intimidator, Dale Earnhardt, “and you know which Dale I’m pulling for!” 

After being off the air for years, Jarrett returned to the booth on May 26, 2007, when he called a Carquest Auto Parts 300 Busch Series race alongside Andy Petree, Jerry Punch and his son, the 1999 Cup Series champion, Dale Jarrett. Ned and Dale Jarrett are the second father-son duo to win NASCAR Cup Series championships, after Lee and Richard Petty. Ned Jarrett, as of 2004, had been inducted in 12 motorsports and sports Halls of Fame, including the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1997 and the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2011. He entered the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1991 and was named one of NASCAR’s 75 greatest drivers in 2023.