Career

Early years

Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Buddy Rice is the son of a former drag racer. Rice's grandfather was from Indianapolis and passed on his interest in racing to Rice's father. Rice saw his first race when he was six years old. He started racing in go-karts when he was 11. Rice played baseball in high school in Phoenix, Arizona, and attracted the attention of college and professional scouts. However, both Rice and his father decided he would pursue a career in racing instead.

Rice's professional career began in 1996, when he drove in one U.S. F2000 event; he finished eighth after starting second. He also drove in the Dodge Shelby Pro Series, winning from the pole at Las Vegas, Nevada.

In 1997, Rice drove in 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 Nations Cup.

In 1998, he won from the pole at Nazareth. He finished seventh in Toyota Atlantic points, and won the Gilles Villeneuve Memorial Award. He finished fifth in the Toyota Atlantic championship in 1999, driving for Lynx Racing.

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.

IRL IndyCar Series

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 drive in a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at the Homestead circuit 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, his first Indycar race victory. 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 was injured in a crash at Indianapolis during practice, and was not cleared to race. In an ironic twist, Bräck then substituted for Rice.

The 2006 season began tragically for Rice at the season-opening race at Homestead-Miami Speedway when teammate Paul Dana of Rahal Letterman Racing team was killed in the final practice session. Rice and his other teammate Danica Patrick withdrew immediately from the race. Rice started his 2006 season in the following race at St. Petersburg, Florida. His Indianapolis 500 race ended early in a crash with Hélio Castroneves. After the IRL 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. He ultimately finished 16th in points.

He did not participate in the 2009 IndyCar Series season after being released from Dreyer & Reinbold Racing at the end of the 2008 season. Further, his long-standing partnership with Red Bull also expired and was not renewed.

He raced for Panther Racing in the 2011 Indianapolis 500 as a teammate to JR Hildebrand driving the number 44 Honda Dallara.

A1 Grand Prix

Starting the 2007-08 season, Rice signed to drive for A1 Team USA in the A1 Grand Prix international racing series. He drove in the first two rounds of the season with a best finish of 13th in the Zandvoort feature race before ceding the seat to Jonathan Summerton for the remainder of the season.

Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series

Rice competed in a few Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series in the early 2000s. In his debut in 2000, he finished second at Watkins Glen on a TRP Lola Nissan. In 2002 he resulted second at the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen and fourth in Homestead and Phoenix, driving a Miracle Riley & Scott Ford.

The driver competed at the 24 Hours of Daytona from 2005 to 2008, with a best result of 9th in 2006. He also raced at Utah from 2006 to 2008, collecting a 7th again in 2006.

In 2009, Rice won the 24 Hours of Daytona on a Brumos Racing Riley Porsche. He spent the second half of the season as teammate of Antonio García in a Spirit of Daytona Coyote Porsche, where he finished 4th at Barber in his only top 10.

Rice raced full-time for Spirit of Daytona in the 2010 Rolex Sports Car Series, joining again García. He helped Spirit of Daytona get the first podium finish for the team at the Six Hours of the Glen in 2010, collecting a third place. He also resulted 5th in three races and ended the season in 11th place.

He has even completed a race without his left shoe.

His last Grand-Am race was the 2011 24 Hours of Daytona, where he finished 9th in an Action Express Racing Riley Porsche.

Personal

In his free time, Rice collects and restores classic cars. Rice enjoys spending time with his wife Michelle. Their first child, Mina, was born on April 9, 2008.

Motorsports career results

American open-wheel racing results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

USF2000 National Championship

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pos	Points
1996	???	WDW	STP	PIR	DSC1	MOS	IRP	RIR	WGI1	WGI2	MDO	NHS	LVS	???	???
1997	Lynx Racing	WDW	STP	PIR	DSC1	DSC2	SAV	PPI	CHA1	CHA2	MDO	WGI	WGI	4th	153

Atlantic Championship

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Rank	Points
1998	Lynx Racing	LBH	NAZ	GAT	MIL	MTL	CLE	TOR	TRR	MDO	ROA	VAN	LS	HOU	7th	108
1999	Lynx Racing	LBH	NAZ	GAT	MIL	MTL	ROA	TRR	MDO	CHI	VAN	LS	HOU		5th	113
2000	DSTP Motorsports	HMS1	HMS2	LBH	MIL	MTL	CLE	TOR	TRR	ROA	LS	GAT	HOU		1st	185
2002	DSTP Motorsports	MTY	LBH	MIL	LS	POR	CHI	TOR	CLE	TRR	ROA	MTL	DEN		17th	31

IRL IndyCar Series

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	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	Dallara	Infiniti	HMS	PHX	FON	NZR	INDY	TXS	PPIR	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIS	KTY	STL	CHI	TX2					22nd	140
2003	Red Bull Cheever	Dallara	Chevrolet	HMS	PHX	MOT	INDY	TXS	PPIR	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIS	STL	KTY	NZR	CHI	FON	TX2				16th	229
2004	Rahal Letterman Racing	G-Force	Honda	HMS	PHX	MOT	INDY	TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIL	MIS	KTY	PPIR	NZR	CHI	FON	TX2				3rd	485
2005	Rahal Letterman Racing	Panoz	Honda	HMS	PHX	STP	MOT	INDY	TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIL	MIS	KTY	PPIR	SNM	CHI	WGL	FON			15th	295
2006	Rahal Letterman Racing	Panoz	Honda	HMS	STP	MOT	INDY	WGL								SNM							15th	234
		Dallara							TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIL	MIS	KTY		CHI
2007	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Dallara	Honda	HMS	STP	MOT	KAN	INDY	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	NSH	MDO	MIS	KTY	SNM	DET	CHI			9th	360
2008	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Dallara	Honda	HMS	STP	MOT2	LBH2	KAN	INDY	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	NSH	MDO	EDM	KTY	SNM	DET	CHI	SRF3	16th	306
2011	Panther Racing	Dallara	Honda	STP	ALA	LBH	SAO	INDY	TXS1	TXS2	MIL	IOW	TOR	EDM	MDO	NHM	SNM	BAL	MOT	KTY	LVS		34th	42

1 Rahal-Letterman Racing withdrew both Rice and teammate Danica Patrick from competition when fellow teammate Paul Dana was killed in a race-morning practice session accident.

2 Races run on same day.

3 Non-points-paying, exhibition race.

Years	Teams	Races	Poles	Wins	Podiums (Non-win)	Top 10s (Non-podium)	Indianapolis 500 Wins	Championships
8	4	99	5	3	5	35	1 (2004)	0

Indianapolis 500

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team
2003	Dallara	Chevrolet	19	11	Cheever
2004	G-Force	Honda	1	1	Rahal Letterman
2005	Panoz	Honda	Practice crash		Rahal Letterman
2006	Panoz	Honda	14	26	Rahal Letterman
2007	Dallara	Honda	16	25	Dreyer & Reinbold
2008	Dallara	Honda	17	8	Dreyer & Reinbold
2011	Dallara	Honda	7	18	Panther

Champ Car

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Rank	Points
2006	Forsythe Championship Racing	Lola B02/00	Ford XFE	LBH	HOU	MTY	MIL	POR	CLE	TOR	EDM	SJO	DEN	MTL	ROA	SRF	MXC	23rd	11

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Points
2007-08	USA	NED SPR	NED FEA	CZE SPR	CZE FEA	MYS SPR	MYS FEA	ZHU SPR	ZHU FEA	NZL SPR	NZL FEA	AUS SPR	AUS FEA	RSA SPR	RSA FEA	MEX SPR	MEX FEA	SHA SPR	SHA FEA	GBR SPR	GBR SPR	12th	56

NASCAR

(key) (Bold - Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics - Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * - Most laps led.)

Craftsman Truck Series

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	NCTC	Pts
2003	ThorSport Racing	20	Chevy	DAY	DAR	MMR	MAR	CLT	DOV	TEX	MEM	MLW	KAN	KEN	GTW	MCH	IRP	NSH	BRI	RCH	NHA	CAL	LVS	SBO	TEX	MAR	PHO	HOM	103rd	103

International Race of Champions

(key) (Bold - Pole position. * - Most laps led.)

International Race of Champions results
Season	Make	1	2	3	4	Pos.	Points
2005	Pontiac	DAY	TEX	RCH	ATL	4th	46

[ Source: Wikipedia ]