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Buddy Rice

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.

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.

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. After his Indy 500 win, his sponsors told him that they would buy him any car he wanted, he chose a 1949 Mercury Eight.

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. He was retained by the team for the 2008 IndyCar season, the high point of which came with a 4th place finish at Watkins Glen.

A1 Grand Prix

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

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.

Motorsports Career Results

American Open-Wheel

(American Open Wheel driver results legend) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

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 Ret	WGL 4	NSH 7	MDO 20	EDM 11	KTY 10	SNM 11	DET Ret	CHI Ret	SRF²	16th	306