Robbie Buhl

Robbie Buhl
Nationality	American
Born	September 2, 1963 Detroit, Michigan
Retired	2004
Indy Racing League IndyCar Series
Years active	1996–2004
Teams	Beck Motorsports Team Menard Sinden Racing Tri-Star Racing Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
Starts	78
Wins	2
Poles	0
Best finish	3rd in 1996
Previous series
1993–1994 1990–1996 1989	CART World Series Indy Lights Barber Saab Pro Series
Championship titles
1992 1989	Indy Lights Barber Saab Pro Series

Robbie Buhl (born September 2, 1963) is a former Indy Racing League competitor and current team-owner, with the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing team in the IRL's IndyCar Series. He was a color commentator for the IndyCar races on Versus.

He won the 1992 Indy Lights championship and caught the eye of John Menard's Team Menard in 1996, running as team mate to Tony Stewart for two seasons succeeding the late Scott Brayton. He scored his first win in what was once the closest finish in series history when he beat ex-MasterCard Lola F1 driver Vincenzo Sospiri by 0.064 seconds at the New Hampshire International Speedway.

He started his own team, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, in 2000 and stunned the establishment with a win from 22nd in the grid the season opener at Walt Disney World Speedway. Mild to moderate success followed the next few seasons and he retired as a driver prior to the 2004 Indianapolis 500. He has continued as a team owner, with moderate success, failing to win any races, but his driver Buddy Rice finished 9th in points in 2007, the team's best points result since Buhl's 8th-place finish in 2000.

Personal

Buhl's wife is the widow of former racer Scott Brayton.

Buhl was born in Detroit but his home is Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. He is a graduate of Cranbrook School (now Cranbrook Kingswood School) in Bloomfield Hills. His family's wealth stems from 19th/early 20th century manufacturing and real estate development and the industrialization of Detroit in the period 1850-1950. Family holdings included Buhl Stamping, Buhl Aircraft manufacturing, development of vast real estate holdings (including the landmark Buhl Building in downtown Detroit), Parke Davis (now part of drug giant Pfizer), Copper and Brass Sales, Inc, (by marriage) and many other holdings. His parents reside in Grosse Pointe Farms, Harbor Springs, Michigan, and Hobe Sound, Florida.

Robbie is a Founder and key Supporter of "Racing for Kids", a charitable foundation established to assist chronically ill children. Robbie makes a point of visiting sick children at hospitals on each stop of the circuit, bringing a bit of cheer to their lives in the process.

In 2007, he began a broadcasting career, joining the broadcast booth for the Indy Pro Series, now the Firestone Indy Lights Series, alongside veteran broadcaster Bob Jenkins. He would join Jenkins and Jon Beekhuis in the Versus broadcast booth for the 2009 IndyCar Series.^[1] It was announced on the Izod Indycar Series website he was let go by Versus for the network's IndyCar coverage and will be replaced by Wally Dallenbach Jr., who is also a color commentator for TNT's NASCAR coverage.^[2]

Motorsports Career Results

American Open Wheel

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

CART

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Rank	Points
1993	Coyne	SRF Ret	PHX Ret	LBH 6	IND DNS	MIL 17	DET Ret	POR	CLE Ret	TOR	MIC	NHA	ROA Ret	VAN	MDO 14	NAZ 17	LS 16	21st	6
1994	Coyne	SRF Ret	PHX	LBH Ret	IND	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MIC	MDO	NHA	VAN	ROA	NAZ	LS	41st	0

IndyCar

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Rank	Points
1996	Beck	WDW 3	PHX Ret	INDY 9														3rd	80
1996-1997	Beck/Menard	NHM Ret	LVS 8	WDW	PHX Ret	IND 8	TXS Ret	PPI	CLT	NH2 1	LV2 3							13th	170
1998	Menard	WDW Ret	PHX 12	INDY Ret	TXS 6	NHM 10	DOV	CLT	PPI 2	ATL Ret	TX2 7	LVS 7						17th	174
1999	Sinden/Foyt/Tri-Star	WDW 20	PHX 3	CLT C	INDY 6	TXS	PPI	ATL	DOV	PP2	LVS 3	TX2 Ret						22nd	114
2000	Dreyer & Reinbold	WDW 1	PHX 7	LVS 5	INDY Ret	TXS 18	PPI Ret	ATL 6	KTY 13	TX2 Ret								8th	190
2001	Dreyer & Reinbold	PHX 11	HMS Ret	ATL Ret	INDY 15	TXS Ret	PPI 3	RIR 9	KAN Ret	NSH Ret	KTY Ret	STL 5	CHI Ret	TX2 3				12th	237
2002	Dreyer & Reinbold	HMS Ret	PHX Ret	FON DNS	NZR	INDY 16	TXS Ret	PPI Ret	RIR 13	KAN Ret	NSH Ret	MIS Ret	KTY 10	STL 6	CHI Ret	TX2 Ret		17th	177
2003	Dreyer & Reinbold	HMS Ret	PHX 12	MOT 10	INDY Ret	TXS Ret	PPI 15	RIR 15	KAN 12	NSH Ret	MIS 13	STL 12	KTY 7	NZR 9	CHI 10	FON 12	TX2 11	14th	261
2004	Dreyer & Reinbold	HMS 10	PHX Ret	MOT Ret	INDY	TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIL	MIS	KTY	PPI	NZR	CHI	FON	TX2	24th	44

Years	Teams	Races	Poles	Wins	Podiums (Non-win)	Top 10s (Non-podium)	Indianapolis 500 Wins	Championships
9	6	78	0	2	7	19	0	0

Indy 500 results

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team
1993	Lola	Buick	Practice Crash		Coyne
1996	Lola	Ford-Cosworth	23rd	9th	Beck
1997	G-Force	Oldsmobile	4th	8th	Menard
1998	Dallara	Oldsmobile	5th	31st	Menard
1999	Dallara	Oldsmobile	32nd	6th	Foyt
2000	G-Force	Oldsmobile	9th	26th	Dreyer & Reinbold
2001	G-Force	Infiniti	9th	15th	Dreyer & Reinbold
2002	G-Force	Infiniti	2nd	16th	Dreyer & Reinbold
2003	Dallara	Chevrolet	22nd	23rd	Dreyer & Reinbold

References

1. Q&A with Robbie Buhl

External links

• Driver DB Profile