Pole-Sitter Rice Wins After Rain Shortens the Indy 500

Delays caused by heavy rain and 54 laps run under yellow caution periods gave the Indianapolis 500 the feeling of a 24 Hours of Daytona before Buddy Rice took the checkered flag Sunday, 7 hours 15 minutes after the race’s scheduled start.

In reality, it was the Indianapolis 450. A storm hit Indianapolis Motor Speedway before the scheduled 500 miles of the 88th Indy 500 were completed, and Rice’s G Force led a parade of Honda-powered cars that look the first seven finishing positions. The victory was the first for Rice in Indy car racing after campaigning in CART and the Indy Racing League since 1998.

The win gave owner Bobby Rahal and partner David Letterman a triple: Rice had won the pole and the Argent-Pioneer crew had won the pit contest before Sunday’s race. It also gave Rahal a double of sorts, having won as a driver in 1986.

“No question, this has been a dream month,” said Rahal, who said much of the team’s success was because of the work of Scott Roembke, the Rahal-Letterman Racing general manager. “What I’m most pleased about is this guy, Scott Roembke, who grew up [in Indianapolis] and this is his life.”

Three Andretti-Green Racing drivers, Tony Kanaan, Dan Wheldon and Bryan Herta, finished in a row behind Rice. Bruno Junqueira, the lone Champ Car driver in the field, finished fifth in Carl Haas’ recently purchased G Force-Honda.

“Buddy was much stronger,” Kanaan said. “He was much faster, and he had a better car today. Not always the best car and best driver wins, but today I think he deserves it.”

Said Wheldon: “When you work so hard and miss it by so little, it’s kind of disappointing, but it was fantastic to come in third. But you know, Buddy Rice had a really strong month, and other than somebody on our team, you couldn’t have a better winner other than him. You’ve got to hang it out to win it, and Buddy certainly did that today.”

The only thing that possibly kept Rice from leading the entire race occurred during a mid-race pit stop when he stalled the engine and lost seven positions, going from first to eighth.

“We had an issue with one of the pit stops, but these [crew] guys have been fighting all year,” Rice said. “They showed their stuff when they won the pit contest and it’s just great what they’ve done for me all year.”

In his last two stops, the crew refueled and changed four tires in 10 seconds.

“There was nothing at that time threatening,” Rice said. “We knew we had at least two more stops before anything was going to remotely happen with the weather at that time. So I wasn’t concerned. There was no reason to panic.”

Rice, who had a lap of 213.746 mph early in the race, averaged 138.518 for the 180 laps. The pace was slowed by eight caution periods.

Asked if he felt he could have held off Kanaan and Wheldon if there had been a restart after the second rain storm, Rice grinned and said, “I think if that had happened, the same guy would be sitting here right now.”

The race started two hours late because of morning showers, and it was stopped after 27 laps for one hour, 47 minutes because of another storm.

The last time a race was shortened by rain was in 1976 when Johnny Rutherford, who drove the pace car this year, won when the race was stopped after 102 laps or 255 miles.

As skies darkened over the speedway with less than 50 laps remaining, it became a game of who would be leading when the rain inevitably arrived. One after another, Junqueira, Kanaan, Rice, Herta and Adrian Fernandez took the lead, looking at the skies and hoping for immediate showers.

All, however, had to give up the front position to refuel and when it was all sorted out, and the rain held off, it was Rice, the race’s dominant figure, who was left standing. Starting from the pole, the 28-year-old from Phoenix led for 91 laps, including the first 15 and the last eight after Fernandez pitted.

When Fernandez took the lead, moisture was showing on TV cameras, but not enough to stop the race.

“Obviously, we would like to have a better result,” said owner-driver Fernandez. “We just seemed to not have the breaks that we need to have. I think the biggest bad break was at the end when Helio [Castroneves] overshot his pit, and I really had no space to come into my pit so my guys could change my tires. We lost like three or four positions that we couldn’t recover.”

Fernandez finished seventh, with his teammate, Kosuke Matsuura, the highest finishing rookie at 11th.

Rice was a popular winner. With his cap on backward and wearing slouchy jeans, he is a favorite hanging around the team garage. A product of kart racing, he went through an up-and-down career in open-wheel cars until he joined Rahal-Letterman Racing this year.

He had been let go by Eddie Cheever last year and was looking for a ride when Rahal called, needing a replacement for injured Kenny Brack.

“It’s not the most pleasant way to come in filling for somebody,” Rice said. “Kenny legitimately held a spot with such a top-rated team. So for me to come in and get his support and all of the help he’s given, and be a big supporter of the team this month, was pretty cool.”

Letterman, who was a cheerleader in Rice’s pit, said, “I think there’s nobody happier in this facility than Kenny is for Buddy. Kenny is a tremendous man. He’s proven everything he needs to ever prove in his life. And I think it’s a great victory for Buddy, and the two of them have been very gracious about the situation.”

The day was not pleasant for sons of famous families.

The two A J. Foyt offspring in the race, grandson A.J. IV and son Larry, were the first two out of the race, victims of unrelated crashes. Ed Carpenter, stepson of Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Tony George, also crashed out when he tangled with another rookie, Mark Taylor.

P.J. Jones, son of Parnelli, hit the wall coming out of the second turn on Lap 94 and his day was over.