Buddy Rice

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Buddy Rice Makes His IROC Debut

Lynx Racing graduate Buddy Rice, who won the 2004 Indy 500 driving for Rahal Letterman Racing, continued to break new ground by becoming the first Lynx driver to compete in the IROC (International Race of Champions) series. This actually wasn’t the first time Rice has driven a stock car. He made one start in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2003.

On Friday, February 18, Rice made his debut in the Crown Royal International Race of Champions at Daytona International Raceway, finishing 5th against eleven other championship drivers in the 40-lap (100-mile) dash that at times looked more like a demolition derby than an auto race.

Rice’s 5th-place finish in his first-ever IROC race was the highest finishing position of any open-wheel driver in the field. Finishing ahead of him were NASCAR drivers Mark Martin, Martin Truex Jr., Bobby Hamilton and Matt Kenseth.

The real story of the race, however, was not the finish but the bumping and shoving during the event.

“Man, it was fun but pretty rough out there,” said Rice, who opens his IRL IndyCar Series season on March 6 in Homestead, Fla., in his No. 15 Argent Mortgage/Pioneer Honda Panoz Firestone machine. “On lap 18 or 19, I got hit pretty hard and the car developed a monstrous push. Thanks to Jim Sauter (IROC test driver) for making me drive a pushing (understeer) car in practice. That gave me an idea what would be going on during the race.”

Rice started fifth and moved up and down the lineup with the usual drafting on the 2.5-mile, high-banked Daytona tri-oval. In five laps, Rice ran from 12th to fourth as he became accustomed to the stock car style of driving on the banking. On several occasions, Buddy tried the outside line to pass but was shifted back in the field as no drivers would help him in draft on the high line.

On lap 25, the yellow flag came out with Rice in fifth. In a double-file restart, Buddy made a great start and moved high on the track in an attempt to jump to the lead. But again he was forced wide and held out of the inside draft. That moved Rice back to tenth.

On lap 36, a six-car pile up in the third turn left carnage throughout the track and the red flag came out. Rice was able to avoid the mishaps and began seventh in the restart. He moved to fifth quickly with four laps remaining but could not mount a challenge on the leaders due to his car’s handling difficulties.

“I thought I had a run on the restart because I moved outside and was going around the leaders,” said Rice. “But Mark Martin moved me up on the track and I was a sitting duck for the rest of the guys on the inside. No open-wheel guys got any breaks tonight in this race. I know I learned a lot about this kind of racing and I’ll be prepared for the next race (April 15 in Texas). It was fun to race with all of these guys tonight. But they were playing pretty rough. That is part of the game here.” Rice’s other three IROC appearances are April 15 at Texas Motor Speedway, Sept. 8 at Richmond International Raceway and Oct. 29 at Atlanta International Raceway.

Rice’s racing career has been a steady climb to the top since Lynx Racing noticed his talent in Formula Ford and signed him in 1996. During the 1997 season, Rice drove in the U.S. F2000 for Lynx Racing/DSTP Motorsports, finishing fourth in points and winning at Phoenix. He also won the 1997 Valvoline Team USA Scholarship, where he represented the United States in Europe’s prestigious Nations Cup.

In 1998, moving up to the Lynx Toyota Atlantic team, he won the pole in his first-ever Atlantic race, at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, and won his second race, also from the pole, on the oval at Nazareth. He eventually finished 7th in the championship points battle, but also won the Gilles Villeneuve Memorial Award for his extraordinary ability and sportsmanship.

In 1999, again racing for the Lynx Atlantic team, Rice finished fifth in the championship and received the Michael Rosen Memorial Award for dedication, perseverance and his desire to succeed.

In 2000, Lynx Racing’s ‘junior team’, DSTP Motorsports, decided to move up from FF2000 to Atlantic and signed Rice and Lynx’s long-time engineer Jim Griffith. The combination went on to win the Atlantic championship with five victories, ten podiums and two pole positions.

Rice moved up to the major leagues in 2002 when he competed in the final five races of the Indy Racing League driving for Red Bull Cheever Racing. He scored a 5th place finish in his first ever IRL race, on the big oval at Michigan. He ran 12 of 16 races for Cheever in 2003,before being replaced at near the end of the season by another Lynx Racing graduate, Alex Barron.

His big break came in 2004 when he was signed to substitute for the injured Kenny Brack at Rahal Letterman Racing. Rice quickly made himself a major asset to the team, winning the Indy 500, followed by victories at Kansas and Michigan. He scored seven top-5 finishes and 12 top-10 finishes, and won his first IRL career pole position in the opening race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Rice has signed to be one of three drivers at Rahal Letterman Racing for 2005, including his 2004 teammate Vitor Miera and rookie Danica Patrick.

Meanwhile, Alex Barron will be joined by fellow Lynx Racing graduate Patrick Carpentier at Red Bull Cheever Racing; as a result, there will be three Lynx Racing alumni on the grid of this year’s Indy 500, all with a good chance of bringing the team its second consecutive victory in the world’s largest race.

For further information on Lynx Racing, please visit the team's web site at www.lynxracing.com, or telephone team P.R. Manager Peter Frey at (818) 906-6997. The Toyota Atlantic series has a web site at www.toyotaatlantic.com.