The team traces its roots to late 1991, when driver Bobby Rahal and business partner Carl Hogan purchased the financially troubled Patrick Racing organization from U.E. "Pat" Patrick. The reconstituted outfit raced under the Rahal-Hogan Racing banner before Hogan's departure in 1996 prompted a rename to Team Rahal. That same year, comedian and talk show host David Letterman purchased a minority stake. Following a 2010 ownership restructuring, Mike Lanigan joined as a co-owner, giving the team its current name. The team is headquartered across two facilities in Zionsville and Hilliard, Indiana.
Under the Rahal-Hogan Racing name in 1992, the team delivered an immediate championship on its debut season. Owner-driver Bobby Rahal piloted a Lola-Chevrolet to four victories, three poles, and twelve top-ten finishes, clinching the CART title by a margin of just four points. The win at Phoenix, where Rahal led all 200 laps, stood as a highlight of that dominant campaign. It was Rahal's third championship as a driver and the last for the Ilmor Chevy A engine.
Following the retirement of Rahal from driving after 1998, the team cycled through multiple drivers including Kenny Bräck, Max Papis, and Michel Jourdain Jr. The 2003 season proved the team's final year in CART/Champ Car competition before a permanent switch to the IRL.
The team's first Indianapolis 500 win came in 2004, when Buddy Rice — standing in for the injured Kenny Bräck — swept the weekend by taking pole, winning the pit stop competition, and leading the most laps before taking the checkered flag. It was simultaneously Honda's first Indianapolis 500 victory in the modern era.
The second Indy 500 triumph arrived in 2020, when Takuma Sato led home teammate Graham Rahal in a one-two finish for the team. Sato had previously won the race in 2017 for Andretti Autosport, making him a two-time winner at Indianapolis. The 2020 result was particularly significant as Sato had crashed out while leading the 2012 race on the final lap while driving for the same organization.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing built a parallel reputation in sports car racing through a long-term partnership with BMW. In the American Le Mans Series from 2009 onward, the team ran factory-supported BMW machinery under the BMW Team RLL banner. The program yielded GT class championships in 2011, when Joey Hand and Dirk Müller took the ALMS GT drivers title, and the team won the 2010 and 2011 team championships.
In the IMSA SportsCar Championship era the team continued with BMW, transitioning through the Z4 GTE and M6 GTLM before arriving at the M8 GTE. Multiple race victories followed at circuits including Laguna Seca, Mid-Ohio, and Watkins Glen. The team scored back-to-back wins at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2011 and 2012. In 2023 the organization stepped up to the prototype class with two BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh entries, claiming the team's first GTP class victory at the Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen.
After the team's return to full-time IndyCar racing in 2012, Graham Rahal — Bobby's son — became its cornerstone driver, bringing the team wins at Auto Club Speedway and Mid-Ohio in 2015 and at Texas Motor Speedway in 2016. Takuma Sato rejoined in 2018 and added victories at Portland and Gateway before his 2020 Indianapolis triumph. Christian Lundgaard joined for a multi-year stint beginning in 2022, with Pietro Fittipaldi added as a full-time entry from 2024.
The team holds the distinction of being one of Honda's longest-running IndyCar partnerships, a relationship that began in 1994, was briefly interrupted, and resumed permanently in 2003. It remains one of the few organizations in American open-wheel racing to have won both a CART championship and multiple Indianapolis 500s across multiple eras of the sport.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing represents a consistent presence across more than three decades of American motorsport. Its dual IndyCar and IMSA programs, factory BMW partnership, and two Indianapolis 500 victories place it among the more accomplished teams in recent American racing history. Bobby Rahal's transition from championship-winning driver to successful team owner mirrors a small number of parallels in the sport, and the team's ability to attract co-owners from outside motorsport has given it financial stability uncommon for independent operations.