Rice Goes Against the Grain

On a cold and damp Indiana day with changing winds and slippery footing that defied qualifying calculations, substitute driver Buddy Rice and the Rahal-Letterman Racing crew picked up speed Saturday where others lost it, enough to win the pole for the 88th Indianapolis 500.

Driving as a replacement for the injured Kenny Brack, Rice averaged 222.024 mph for four laps in the Argent-Pioneer Honda-powered G Force, nearly 2 mph faster than he had run in practice. He also had the fastest single lap, 222.224.

“That’s obviously what I was brought here to do when I came here to sub for Kenny, to put the car up front,” said a jubilant Rice. “It won’t be much longer, and he’ll be back in the car. We’ll have a two-car effort.”

Brack, the 1999 Indy winner, suffered near career-ending injuries in the final race last year. He is here, however, with his musical group, the Subwoofers.

It was also a big day for Honda as the Japanese manufacturer took the first seven starting positions and eight of the first 10.

Bobby Rahal, the 1986 Indy 500 winner who is now sharing car owner duties with TV talk-show host David Letterman, had two other drivers, Vitor Meira and Roger Yasukawa, qualify in the first four rows.

“People say we were under the radar all month, but I just think that we don’t cheat ourselves,” said Rice, who gave some indication of his speed when he won the pole for the Indy Racing League series opener at Homestead-Miami. “The big thing today was the wind, it completely changed directions from what it had been all week. Obviously, in this weather, some of them dropped off, and our car picked up.

“The whole engineering staff at Rahal-Letterman has been working hard and deserves the credit.”

Rice had been unemployed after Eddie Cheever dropped him in mid-season last year and until Rahal called him in December to fill in for Brack.

Another Honda-powered team, Andretti-Green, did even better with three in the first five. Dan Wheldon was second at 221.524 mph, Dario Franchitti third at 221.471 and Tony Kanaan fifth at 221.200. Their fourth driver, Bryan Herta, crashed in the first turn, but is expected to be back for another qualifying attempt today.

Meanwhile, the favorites, such as Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon and Sam Hornish Jr., found themselves losing speed.

“Unfortunately, we had a range where we were going from being brave to being stupid, and I got in that range and just said OK,” said Castroneves, a two-time Indy 500 winner with Roger Penske’s Toyota-powered team. “The rains delayed us and once we got out, the car was pushing like crazy and just going straight. This place is amazing, you never know which way to go.”

Castroneves will start eighth after having started last year on the pole.

Morning showers caused a three-hour delay in the time trials and the weather was so cold that race officials permitted drivers to take three warmup laps instead of two to better warm their tires.

Robby Gordon, needing to depart for Richmond, Va., by 2:30 p.m. to make a Nextel Cup drivers meeting before a NASCAR night race, was fortunate to be the third one off. He took a disappointing 216.522-mph average, good for 18th place, but made his deadline.

“The car got really tight,” he said before taking off by helicopter for the airport. “I just couldn’t hold it [throttle] open in Turn 1. If we didn’t have to leave for Richmond, we’d have waved it off and tried again. I’m already thinking about what we need to do for race setup.”

Twenty-two cars qualified, leaving 11 spots open for the traditional 33 in the May 30 race, but only five drivers appear ready to make qualifying attempts today or on next Sunday’s Bump Day. Three who crashed -- Herta, Alex Barron and Felipe Giaffone -- are expected to make another try, along with Tora Takagi and rookie Marty Roth, who passed on the first day.

P.J. Jones, driving the famous Agajanian No. 98, will be in Greg Beck’s Chevrolet next week, but that still leaves the potential field at only 28.

Bringing up the rear of the field are the two Foyts, grandsonA.J. IV and son-grandson Larry, who became his grandfather’s adoptive son as a baby.

A.J. IV’s crew had to change engines during practice and he was the next-to-last qualifier at 214.256.

Larry said, “It was the greatest day of my life” after posting his 213.277 speed. He has been driving stock cars in NASCAR and came to the Indy 500 for the first time as a driver.