Vail native and business owner Buddy Lazier, the 1996 Indianapolis 500 winner, will become the eighth driver to reach 20 starts when the green flag waves to begin IndyCar’s crown jewel Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Lazier, 49, qualified 30th in the 33-car field at 223.417 mph. Scott Dixon won the pole by going 232.164 mph, so Lazier will have to find some speed to avoid getting lapped.
“This is a special place,” Lazier said from IMS, where he rallied to prepare a single-car team after practice began. “Apart from a late start, we’ve really done a lot of good work and I’d say we have a little better race car that a lot of people think. I think we’ll surprise some people on race day.”
Lazier hasn’t been an IndyCar regular since 2006, when he started six of 14 races. Since then, he hasn’t started any race other than the Indy 500, and ran at IMS in 2007 (19th-place finish), 2008 (17th), 2013 (31st), 2014 (32nd) and 2016 (30th). He hasn’t completed all 200 scheduled laps since 2005, but made 199 in 2006.
“I really don’t feel rusty,” Lazier said of his one-race seasons. “We used to do 25 days or more of manufacture tire testing. Today, the series and the track only allow one or two days of off-season testing a year. So for some of these drivers, they’re not ever going to catch up with the amount of miles I have around this race track. That’s something as a driver that’s aging and has been there a long time — I bring that with me.”
Lazier continues to race at Indy because, well, it’s Indy.
“It’s the single biggest sporting event in terms of people in one place and one time,” he said. “As a driver, you come here and it challenges you like no other race track. I think that’s what keeps me coming back. You’re in the corner here longer than any other (track) in the world. We’re at sub-230 mph speeds and the consequences from mistakes are so (big). It really requires a big commitment from the driver and the crew. The man and the machine, that combination, there’s just something so special about it.”
Indy 500/most starts
Pos. Driver (wins) Start
A.J. Foyt (4) 35
Mario Andretti (1) 29
Al Unser (4) 27
Johnny Rutherford (3) 24
Gordon Johncock (2) 24
George Snider 22
Gary Bettenhausen 21
Bobby Unser (3) 19
Al Unser Jr. (2) 19
Buddy Lazier (1) 19
Source: IndyCar
