Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is teaming up with Citrone/Buhl Autosport to field a third Honda entry for the Indianapolis 500 with Spencer Pigot behind the wheel. The team will do both races in May, as they announced their first on-track action will come on May 8, which is opening practice for the GMR Grand Prix on the IMS road course.

Pigot won back-to-back championships with the 2014 Pro Mazda and 2015 Indy Lights titles. The 26-yar old driver made his IndyCar debut in 2016 with RLL in St Petersburg, and drove for the team in the Indy 500. Spencer spent the past three and a half seasons with Ed Carpenter Racing. The full press release from today is below.

[Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Press Release]

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) announced today that Spencer Pigot, who made three starts for the team in 2016, will return to RLL in 2020 for the GMR Grand Prix on May 9 and the Indianapolis 500 on May 24 in a Honda-powered car entered by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing with Citrone/Buhl Autosport (CBA).

CBA was formed in early 2020 by former Indy car driver Robbie Buhl and his brother and business partner Tom, and Robert Citrone, founder of Discovery Capital Management and the largest minority owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and his son Nick, a Data Analytics Coordinator for the Pittsburgh Penguins NHL team.  Robbie and Tom own Buhl Sport Detroit, a motorsports marketing company that operates a rallycross team and an advanced driver training program called Teen Street Skills.

Orlando, Florida native Pigot, 26, earned back-to-back championships in 2014 and 2015 in the INDYCAR Ladder Series with his 2014 Pro Mazda championship and 2015 Indy Lights title.  He made his NTT INDYCAR SERIES debut with RLL in 2016 in the St. Petersburg season opener and also competed in the INDYCAR Grand Prix and Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the team. He made an additional seven starts for Ed Carpenter Racing (ECR) that year and joined ECR fulltime from 2017-2019 with a career best start of third place at the 2019 Indy 500 and career best finish of second place at Iowa Speedway in 2018.

“I’m very excited to join Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing with Citrone/Buhl Autosport for this year’s GMR Grand Prix and Indianapolis 500,” said Pigot. “I ran my first INDYCAR SERIES race and Indy 500 with RLL in 2016 so it will be nice to return to a team with some familiar faces. I can’t thank everyone at RLL and Citrone/Buhl Autosport enough for their efforts in putting this deal together and the opportunity to compete in another Indy 500. I can’t wait for May!”

“I’m very pleased to have Spencer back with us again for the month of May,” said co-owner Bobby Rahal. “There is no question in my mind that he can contribute to the overall performance of the team based upon his strong performance last May and at other events throughout the season. Spencer is a team player and has a bright future in my opinion.  We are looking forward to working with Citrone/Buhl Autosport on this entry.  It is an exciting time for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and having a new team enter the sport is proof of that.”

The Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing with Citrone/Buhl Autosport entry for Spencer Pigot will make its debut on track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Friday, May 8 for practice for the GMR Grand Prix and will attempt to qualify for the 104th running of the Indianapolis 500, which will be held May 24.

“Rob, Nick and I love Indy car racing.  We all want to win and this set up allows us to learn in an accelerated way,” said co-owner Robbie Buhl. “Getting to see more of how the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team operates and getting to see the depth of both the engineering and commercial side is exciting. We feel great about our partnership. You obviously look back at your own experiences as a driver and with Spencer having come up through the ranks leading to Indy car and winning the Pro Mazda and Indy Lights championships like he did shows that he can win. He knows his way around the INDYCAR SERIES and he knows how to be fast at Indy. You just have to have a little bit of luck and have a good team behind you. In addition to that, what Takuma and Graham offer to the program is invaluable. We’re excited.”