See the latest achievement of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
1986 500 winner Bobby Rahal drives his winning car to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum on Thursday, October 21, 2021.
- Who are the owners of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing?
(This story has been updated to add new information.)
The FBI launched an investigation at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing headquarters Wednesday morning, Zionsville Mayor John Stehr confirmed to IndyStar.
“The FBI asked us for assistance this morning as they executed an arrest warrant at Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s headquarters,” Stehr said. “Our officers remained outside as the FBI agents entered the building.”
The nature of the investigation, which began at 8:30 a.m. at the team’s facility at 10771 Creek Way in Zionsville, was not disclosed to Stehr and his officers, he said.
IndyStar turned to Rahal Letterman Lanigan, an IndyCar team owned by 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal, Indiana native and legendary television host David Letterman and entrepreneur Mike Lanigan.
“We are cooperating fully with investigators. Because this is an ongoing investigation, we are limited in the information we can share at this time,” the team said in a statement to IndyStar. “However, we intend to provide additional information as soon as possible.”
IndyStar reached out to the FBI but did not immediately receive a response.
Who are the owners of Rahal Letterman Lanigan?
Bobby Rahal, 71, is one of a select group of people who have won the Indianapolis 500 as both a driver and an owner.
As a driver, he won three championships and 24 races in the CART open-wheel series, including the Indianapolis 500 in 1986. As an owner, he won the Indianapolis 500 in 2004 and 2020 as a team owner for Buddy Rice and Takuma Sato.
After retiring as a driver, Rahal held management positions with Jaguar’s Formula One team and was interim president of the CART series. In the 1980s, he once competed as a sports car driver for the Wood Brothers in a NASCAR series.
In addition to his long-time leadership of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, he is the founder and chairman of the Bobby Rahal Automotive Group, which owns car dealerships in Pennsylvania.
IndyStar racing insider Nathan Brown RLL focused on two things in 2024: recovery at the Indy 500, extension for Christian Lundgaard
More: From IndyCar insider Nathan Brown How Bobby Rahal transformed his IndyCar team from a one-time competitor to a threat to the Big 3
David Letterman, 77, is an Indiana native who became a legendary late-night talk show host on CBS. He attended Ball State University and worked as a grocery bagger in Broad Ripple as a teenager.
When he met Rahal in 1986, they began casually discussing Letterman’s interest in racing in the IndyCar series. Ten years later, Letterman became a part owner of what was then Team Rahal.
Earlier this year, Letterman explained to IndyStar why he initially wanted to join Rahal’s racing team.
“Being born and raised in Indianapolis, the month of May has been an integral part of my life and the lives of all our friends, family and neighbors. The “That was one thing and stuck with me,” Letterman told IndyStar racing insider Nathan Brown. “I followed the race and every activity during the month. And then as I got older and moved away, the race went through a phase where it wasn’t as much fun as it could have been. Some years it was very tragic and my interest in it started to wane a little bit. And then I came back to seeing this kid named Bobby Rahal running up front every weekend.”
More: Native Son David Letterman on the Indy 500: “I love that it’s part of my heritage as a Hoosier”
“I started following him and was attracted to ‘the guy,’ who wasn’t so typical of the drivers I knew when I was younger,” Letterman said. “When he won in 1986, he came on (Late Night with David Letterman), and that was the beginning of our acquaintance, and a friendship developed, and I would go to races all over the country when I had time off. From then on, he was nice enough to let me in and be kind of a partner on the team.”
Mike Lanigan is a businessman who founded a division of his father’s company, Mi-Jack Products, in Indianapolis in 1973. In 1989, he returned to his hometown of Chicago to become president of the company, which manufactures rubber-tire gantry cranes.
Lanigan became involved in racing in 1992 when Mi-Jack began sponsoring cars competing in the CART and Indianapolis 500 races. Today, he is co-owner of the Lanco Group, “a sprawling conglomerate involved in cranes, heavy equipment, industrial equipment, entertainment and motorsports, and is part of a joint venture that operates the Panama Canal Railway,” according to the team’s website.
In December 2010, Lanigan joined the Rahal Letterman Racing ownership team, which was renamed Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
More: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing begins construction of its new headquarters just before the Indy 500
This story is evolving and will be updated.
Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on X: @DanaBenbow. You can reach them by email: [email protected].
