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In perhaps the most bizarre story in motorsports this year, FBI agents raided the headquarters of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing on Wednesday.
Located in Zionsville, Indiana, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing fields three cars in IndyCar with drivers Pietro Fittipaldi, Christian Lundgaard (pictured above) and Graham Rahal, as well as two cars in the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA).
The team is owned by talk show host David Letterman, former IndyCar champion and Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal, and Mi-Jack co-owner Mike Lanigan.
The Indianapolis Business Journal reports that the racing team is “cooperating fully with investigators,” but they would not say what triggered the raid.
“We are cooperating fully with investigators. Given that this is an ongoing investigation, we are limited in what information we can share right now, but we intend to provide additional information as soon as we can,” Kathi Lauterbach, Vice President of Communications for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, said in a statement.
Zionsville Mayor John Stehr did tell the Indianapolis Business Journal that the FBI “was serving a warrant as part of a larger investigation,” but added, “they did not give us any information” about the cause for the warrant.
RACER magazine, however, reported the FBI investigation is allegedly centered on the suspected transfer of intellectual property by a former Andretti Global IndyCar team employee, who left that team to take over a senior engineering role with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
Reportedly, the FBI visited Andretti Global IndyCar headquarters in August as part of the investigation.
The FBI also allegedly told employees at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing headquarters to leave their computers and related electronic devices in place, gather their belongings, and depart the building as part of the raid.
The Indianapolis office of the FBI, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and Andretti Global IndyCar all refused to offer any more details or comment on the raid and investigation.
Alex Damron, a spokesman for IndyCar, told IBJ, “We’re aware and monitoring the situation.”