Buddy Rice

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Buddy Rice
Buddy Rice recovers from a tough qualification attempt prior to the 2007 Indianapolis 500.
Nationality	United States
Date of Birth	January 31, 1976 (1976-01-31) (age 32)
Place of Birth	Phoenix, Arizona
2008 IndyCar Series
Debut season	2002
Current team	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
Car No.	15
Former teams	Cheever Racing Rahal Letterman Racing
Starts	88
Wins	3
Poles	5
Best finish	3rd in 2004
Previous series
2006 1998-2000, 2002 1996-1997	Champ Car World Series Toyota Atlantic U.S. Formula Ford 2000
Championship titles
2000	Toyota Atlantic Champion
Awards
2004	Indianapolis 500 winner

Buddy Rice (born January 31, 1976 in Phoenix, Arizona) is an auto racing driver in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series. He is best known for winning the 2004 Indianapolis 500 while driving for Rahal Letterman Racing.

Contents 1 Early career 2 Indy Racing League 3 A1 Grand Prix 4 Personal 5 Motorsports Career Results 5.1 American Open-Wheel 5.1.1 IndyCar 5.2 Indy 500 results 6 External links

[edit] Early career

Buddy's racing career started in 1996, when he dove in one U.S. F2000 event, finishing eighth after starting second in a 6-year-old car. He also drove in Dodge Shelby Pro Series, winning from the pole at Las Vegas.

In 1997, he drove in U.S. F2000 for Lynx Racing/DSTP Motorsports, finishing fourth in points and winning at Phoenix. He also won 1997 Valvoline Team USA Scholarship, where he represented the United States in Europe’s prestigious Nations Cup.

In 1998, he won from the pole at Nazareth, finished seventh in Toyota Atlantic points, and won the Gilles Villeneuve Memorial Award. He finished fifth in the Toyota Atlantic championship driving for Lynx Racing in 1999.

He won the 2000 Toyota Atlantic Series championship, which gained the attention of Red Bull Cheever Racing. In 2001, he tested with Red Bull Cheever Racing in November at California.

[edit] Indy Racing League

In August 2002, Rice had his first race in the IRL for Red Bull Cheever Racing at Michigan International Speedway. Hired initially to replace crash-prone Tomas Scheckter, Team owner Eddie Cheever discovered that Scheckter's contract was more iron-clad than first thought. Team Cheever then ran three entries (joined by their team owner), and the best crew and parts were given to Rice. Rice lost the race by inches to Scheckter, but made a mark in the series. He competed in the final five races of the IRL IndyCar Series season with Red Bull Cheever Racing, scoring four top-10 finishes and two top-five finishes in five starts.

In 2003, Rice competed in 13 of 16 races for Red Bull Cheever Racing but was replaced by the more experienced Alex Barron.

In November 2003, he dabbled with a one-off at Homestead during a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race before being called by Bobby Rahal to drive the #15 Argent Mortgage Honda when Kenny Bräck was injured in a late-race crash at Texas Motor Speedway in 2003.

In 2004, Rice started on the pole and won the rain-shortened Indianapolis 500. He finished 3rd in the IRL championship that year, earning five poles, three wins and leading 342 laps.

For 2005 he and Vitor Meira were joined by Danica Patrick. However, Rice himself was injured in a crash at Indianapolis during practice, and was not cleared to race. In an ironic twist of events, Bräck then substituted for Rice.

The 2006 season started tragically for Rice and Danica Patrick, who both withdrew immediately from the season-opening race at Homestead-Miami Speedway following the death of new Rahal Letterman Racing teammate Paul Dana in final practice. Rice started his 2006 season at St. Petersburg, Florida, in the second race. His Indianapolis 500 ended early in a crash with Helio Castroneves. After the season ended he raced in the Champ Car World Series race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez for Forsythe Racing and finished 10th.

For 2007, Rice joined Sarah Fisher at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. He captured 3 top-five finishes in the first half of the season and finished 9th in points, his best result since 2004.

[edit] A1 Grand Prix

Starting the 2007-08 season, Rice is driving for A1 Team USA in the A1 Grand Prix international racing series.[1]

[edit] Personal

Rice is an Arizona native and attended Shadow Mountain High School.

He was a pro baseball prospect while in high school, before giving up baseball to go racing.

He is married to Michelle Rice. Their first child, Mina, was born April 9, 2008.^[1]

[edit] Motorsports Career Results

[edit] American Open-Wheel

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

[edit] IndyCar

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2002	Red Bull Cheever	HMS	PHX	FON	NZR	INDY	TXS	PPIR	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIS 2	KTY 12	STL 4	CHI 9	TX2 6					22nd	140
2003	Red Bull Cheever	HMS 16	PHX 9	MOT 13	INDY 11	TXS 14	PPIR 9	RIR 9	KAN Ret	NSH 18	MIS 11	STL 14	KTY 11	NZR 10	CHI	FON	TX2				16th	229
2004	Rahal Letterman	HMS 7	PHX 9	MOT 6	INDY 1	TXS Ret	RIR 6	KAN 1	NSH 6	MIL 2	MIS 1	KTY 2	PPIR Ret	NZR 4	CHI Ret	FON 5	TX2 Ret				3rd	485
2005	Rahal Letterman	HMS Ret	PHX Ret	STP 7	MOT 3	INDY INJ	TXS Ret	RIR 11	KAN 10	NSH Ret	MIL Ret	MIS Ret	KTY 14	PPIR 11	SNM 2	CHI 13	WGL Ret	FON 12			15th	295
2006	Rahal Letterman	HMS Wth	STP Ret	MOT 5	INDY Ret	WGL 4	TXS Ret	RIR 13	KAN Ret	NSH Ret	MIL 11	MIS 13	KTY 15	SNM 15	CHI 13						15th	234
2007	Dreyer & Reinbold	HMS 10	STP 10	MOT 10	KAN Ret	INDY Ret	MIL Ret	TXS 8	IOW 4	RIR 5	WGL 6	NSH Ret	MDO 8	MIS 5	KEN 12	SNM 11	DET Ret	CHI 9			9th	360
2008	Dreyer & Reinbold	HMS 11	STP 15	MOT1 12	LBH1 DNP	KAN Ret	INDY 8	MIL 10	TXS 8	IOW Ret	RIR	WGL	NSH	MDO	EDM	KTY	SNM	DET	CHI	SRF2	17th*	144*

* 2008 season in progress

¹ Run on same day.

² Non-points-paying, exhibition race.

Years	Teams	Races	Poles	Wins	Podiums (Non-win)	Top 10s (Non-podium)	Indianapolis 500 Wins	Championships
7	3	88	5	3	5	31	1 (2004)	0

[edit] Indy 500 results

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish
2003	Dallara	Chevrolet	19	11
2004	G-Force	Honda	1	1
2005	Panoz	Honda	Practice crash
2006	Panoz	Honda	14	26
2007	Dallara	Honda	16	25
2008	Dallara	Honda	17	8

[edit] External links

• Buddy Rice's Bibliography on IndyCar.com

Sporting positions
Preceded by Anthony Lazzaro	Toyota Atlantic Champion 2000	Succeeded by Hoover Orsi
Preceded by Gil de Ferran	Indianapolis 500 Winner 2004	Succeeded by Dan Wheldon

v • d • e Indianapolis 500 winners Four-time A. J. Foyt · Al Unser, Sr. · Rick Mears Three-time Louis Meyer · Wilbur Shaw · Mauri Rose · Johnny Rutherford · Bobby Unser Two-time Tommy Milton · Bill Vukovich · Rodger Ward · Gordon Johncock · Emerson Fittipaldi · Arie Luyendyk · Al Unser, Jr. · Hélio Castroneves One-time Harroun · Dawson · Goux · Thomas · DePalma · Resta · Wilcox · Chevrolet · Murphy · Corum · Boyer · DePaolo · Lockhart · Souders · Keech · Arnold · Schneider · Frame · Cummings · Petillo · Roberts · Davis · Robson · Holland · Parsons · Wallard · Ruttman · Sweikert · Flaherty · Hanks · Bryan · Rathmann · Jones · Clark · Hill · Andretti · Donohue · Sneva · Sullivan · Rahal · Villeneuve · Lazier · Cheever · Bräck · Montoya · de Ferran · Rice · Wheldon · Hornish · Franchitti · Dixon

v • d • e 2008 IndyCar Series season Teams Andretti Green Ganassi Penske RLR D & R Vision Panther 7 Patrick 11 Kanaan 26 M. Andretti 27 Mutoh 9 Dixon 10 Wheldon 3 Castroneves 6 Briscoe 17 Hunter-Reay 15 Rice 23 Duno/Bell 2 Foyt 20 Carpenter 4 Meira Foyt Roth Conquest N/H/L KV Racing Coyne HVM PCM 14 Manning 24 Howard/J. Andretti 25 Roth 34 Camara 36 Bernoldi 02 Wilson 06 Rahal 5 Servia 8 Power 18 Junqueira 19 Moraes 33 Viso 96 Dominguez Races Homestead • St. Pete • Motegi • Long Beach • Kansas • Indy 500 • Milwaukee • Texas • Iowa • Richmond •  Watkins Glen • Nashville • Mid-Ohio • Edmonton • Kentucky • Infineon • Belle Isle • Chicagoland • Surfers Paradise