Dreyer and Reinbold Racing has announced that Graham Rahal will replace Stefan Wilson for the upcoming Indianapolis 500.
The team worked tirelessly over the past 24 hours to get the deal put into place that will see Rahal climb behind the wheel of their car.
Rahal had been bumped out of the race during qualifying in his normal #15 RLL entry, but now has a second chance at competing in the race via this deal that was thrown together at the last moment.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” said DRR owner Dennis Reinbold. “I don’t have a script, so that’s kind of consistent with how the last day has gone. We’re excited to put Graham in the car.
“It was a tough deal, we had the month going really well with Stefan. He is getting further evaluation today, I know, going in for X-rays here soon to sort of determine the path of what’s best for him.
“We had to do a lot of work yesterday afterwards to get things put together with Graham, and there were a lot of hurdles involved.
“From the start of this yesterday afternoon, Bobby [Rahal] immediately came over and spoke to me, and we put our heads down to try to figure out how we could make this happen, if we could.
“A lot of the concerns he had were with Graham’s sponsors, and we have some flexibility, and he stepped in, Bobby stepped in and really made it work out to where we could do different things and shift things around, and I worked with Don [Cusick] in that regard, as well.
“It’s just been a group effort to try to figure out what we can do, so yeah, our car will look a little bit different to accommodate some of those things in order for us all to work together and just get to the end goal.”
Wilson was injured in a crash during Monday’s practice sessions, which saw his #24 entry hit the outside SAFER barrier nose first.
The 33-year-old was extracted from his car via stretcher and was taken directly to a local hospital for advanced imaging.
It was revealed later in the day that he suffered a fracture in his vertebrae, and would not be able to race in the Indy 500 next weekend.
Team owners Don Cusick and Dennis Reinbold worked with IndyCar officials and many different manufacturers in the paddock to get all the paperwork and approvals needed to bring the veteran onboard on such short notice.
The biggest hurdle was the fact that Rahal drives with a Honda powerplant, and has done so for most of his career, and DRR is powered by a Chevy motor.
Honda and Chevy both had to sign off on letting Rahal move over and drive the #24 for this race, and Rahal was very grateful for being allowed to accept the invitation.
On account of switching to a different car, Rahal will start from the 33rd and final position on Sunday.
That places him among his RLL team-mates on the grid, which will be an awkward situation among plenty of unique experiences for the veteran.
“First off, I think as everybody said, I certainly feel for Stef,” said Rahal. “I know how much he puts into this, year in and year out, to get the opportunity to be here and to see what happened to him is never good.
“I know emotionally the roller coaster he’s on right now, unfortunately. I’ve just lived it, as well, and I know that he’ll be back really strong and better than ever. That said, too, the Wilson family certainly in my life has had a very strong impact.
“Clearly this is Stef’s ride. It’s his seat. He’s done a great job to get it to the point that it is. It was an honor for me to receive the call.
“I felt every emotion over the last couple of days. But as I’ve always said, and Dennis [Reinbold] knows this well, that’s Indy. It can put you through a vicious cycle, and you never know what’s going to happen, how it’s going to take place.
“We don’t know how it’s going to end up in five, six days’ time. But at the end of the day, when an opportunity like this comes, you certainly are honored to get the call.
“For me, I won’t lie, I really did feel excited to have the sense that another team had the respect at least for me to call. It was a great opportunity to come out here and try to perform and be able to race this Sunday.
“I must say, Dennis mentioned Chevy, and equally so Honda, for allowing me to do this. I think I told Dennis when he called me, I said, ‘I’m not really sure I want to waste your time.’
“I’ve spent my entire career in a Honda. I’ve never driven anything other than that. I’m not really sure that we’ll be able to get the releases in place to be able to make this happen.
“They really came together, two manufacturers, to allow this to take place, to allow us to go race on Sunday, and hopefully get this car moving towards the front and have a really, really strong run.”
