Indianapolis – Buddy Lazier of Vail enters today’s 89th Indianapolis 500 with the most experience of any of the 33 starters.
Problem is, Lazier’s annual seat time in a race car is one of the shortest.
Lazier, 37, who impressively qualified ninth for his 13th Indy 500, will compete in his first professional race since last year’s Indy Racing League event at the Brickyard.
“I’m not an old man,” said Lazier, who has failed to hook on with a full-time team for nearly two years. “One of the problems was I came here as a teenager. Even though I have 12 starts, I’m not that much older than anybody here. I’m by far not the oldest. … And at the end of the day, I feel like I can race and win races at any level for the next 10 to 12 years.”
The 1996 Indianapolis 500 winner captured the 2000 Indy Racing League crown and finished second in the 2001 standings with a series- high four victories. In 2002, he won the prestigious International Race of Champions event at Chicagoland Speedway.
That year things began to unravel. Lazier finished winless in the IRL in 2002 and eighth in the standings. His relationship with Hemelgarn soured in 2003 when the team failed to produce a competitive car.
A year ago at Indy, he drove for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. He finished 23rd, completing just 164 laps because of a fuel system malfunction.
Lazier hooked up with the No. 95 Panther Racing/Jonathan Byrd entry in April to compete in today’s race.
If it weren’t for a first-lap crash in Friday’s final practice, Lazier might have had a good chance at winning. He has had the fastest Chevrolet engine in the field and stood among the top 12 in speeds throughout the month.
But his crash will force him to race with an untested repaired car or his backup car. The latter would mean he would have to start from the rear of the field.
Regardless of today’s outcome, Lazier said he’s not ready to retire.
“The problem is I’m not really all that good at anything other than racing, because racing is what I love to do and what I want to do, and I think as long as I’m planning on being a race driver, there is no room to do anything else,” he said.
Lazier, who leads all IRL drivers in most top-five (four) and top-10 (five) finishes at Indy, could wind up in NASCAR. He recently tested for a Craftsman Truck Series team.
Footnotes
Jaques Lazier, who lives in Alta Loma, Calif., is making his fourth start and fifth appearance at Indy. Buddy Lazier’s younger brother substituted for Robbie Gordon last year. … Speedway public address announcer Tom Carnegie will call his 60th consecutive race. Carnegie, 85, was hospitalized last week for dehydration. … There have been 67 driver deaths at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway but none during the race since 1973. Tony Renna died in a test session crash in October 2003, and Scott Brayton died in a practice wreck before the 1996 race.
Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-820-5453 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
