- Buddy Lazier
Infobox racing driver
name = Robert Buddy Lazier
pixels =
caption =
nationality = USA
date of birth = Birth date and age|1967|10|31
place of birth = Vail,Colorado
date of death =
retired =
related to =Bob Lazier (father)Jaques Lazier (brother)
current series = IRLIndyCar Series
first year = 1996
current team =Hemelgarn Racing
car number = 91
former teams =Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Panther Racing Sam Schmidt Motorsports
starts = 100
wins = 8
poles = 2
fastest laps =
best finish = 1st
year = 2000
prev series = CART
prev series years = 1989-1995
titles = Indy Racing League Champion
title years = 2000
awards = Scott Brayton Trophy
award years = 2003Robert Buddy Lazier (born
October 31 ,1967 inVail, Colorado ) is an American open-wheelracecar driver. He won the 1996Indianapolis 500 and has finished in the Top Ten in that race six times. Both his fatherBob Lazier and brotherJaques Lazier are veterans of the Indy 500 as well.Lazier first appeared in
CART beginning in 1989 driving for Gary Trout Motorsports and also participated in The Indy 500 as a rookie. In preparation for the founding of theIndy Racing League in 1996, he signed withRon Hemelgarn 'sHemelgarn Racing whom he drove in theIndianapolis 500 for in 1991. Buddy was one of the drivers in the first IRL race and won the 1996 Indianapolis 500, the first sanctioned by the IRL despite suffering a major back injury earlier in the season. Following the fame and money of the Indy win, a strong partnership between Buddy, Hemelgarn, and sponsor Delta Faucet formed. This partnership resulted in a model season for the team in 2000 with Buddy winning 2 races on his way to the series championship followed by a second place effort in 2001. Following the influx of former CART Teams and the new engine suppliers in 2002, Lazier and Hemelgarn had extreme difficulty competing at the level that they had before and they lost their sponsor following the 2003 season. Buddy only completed in the Indy 500 in 2004 for Hemelgarn and was signed to drive the 2005 Indy 500 for the Byrd Brothers andPanther Racing , placing fifth in the race, ahead of Panther's 2 regular driversTomáš Enge andTomas Scheckter in a race that many believe may have resurrected his career.In 2005, Buddy acquired a four-race deal with
Panther Racing to drive the #95 Pennzoil/American Sentry Guard Dallara/Chevrolet. However, he received an extra race in Enge's #2 Rockstar Energy Drink Dallara/Chevrolet at Milwaukee onJuly 24 . Enge was injured during a crash at theNashville Superspeedway during theFirestone Indy 200 a week earlier. He logged four top-tens in the No. 95 and an 18th-place finish in Enge's No. 2 car. With Panther's contraction to a single car in 2006, Lazier was forced to search for another team, which he found inRobbie Buhl 'sDreyer & Reinbold Racing .In 2006, Lazier raced in seven events for Dreyer & Reinbold with a best finish of 12th in the Indy 500. He was replaced by Aussie
Ryan Briscoe for theWatkins Glen International race and Briscoe finished third. He was replaced again by Briscoe after theKansas Speedway race on July 2, finishing a disappointing 15th after starting seventh. Lazier returned for theMichigan International Speedway race in August, butSarah Fisher finished the season for the team in the two remaining races that Briscoe was not contracted for in the IndyCar Series.Lazier did not have a contract as a regular driver for the
2007 IndyCar Series season . However, Lazier teamed up withSam Schmidt Motorsports to race in the2007 Indianapolis 500 . Without a permanent ride, Lazier drove in aNASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race withBilly Ballew Motorsports atLas Vegas Motor Speedway on September 22 of that year and finished 24th.2008 began similar to 2007 without a full-time ride in any series. Lazier and Hemelgarn Racing reunited in a late effort to qualify for the
2008 Indianapolis 500 . Lazier qualified on the third day of qualifying but was bumped from the field. He struggled to find speed early in Sunday's bump day session, but with less than half an hour remaining in the session the team completed major changes and made a qualifying attempt with no practice laps on the new setup. The attempt was not fast enough, so the team adjusted wing settings to remove drag from the car and went out for another attempt, again with no practice. This attempt was fast enough to bumpRoger Yasukawa and put Lazier 32nd on the grid and earn them a $50,000 bonus for being the last driver to make a successful qualifying attempt.Motorsports Career Results
American Open Wheel
() (Races in bold indicate pole position)
Champ Car
Indy 500 results
External links
* [http://www.artemisimages.com/gallery.aspx?photomode=5&keywords=Buddy%20Lazier Buddy Lazier Photos]
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