July 16, 2004

by Ron Felix

Buddy Rice On Nashville Pole

Buddy Rice was cool and collected before the qualifying session for the Firestone Indy 200 on Friday but his demeanor changes once he's behind the wheel of his Panoz G Force-Honda. The mild mannered competitor, winner of this year's Indy 500, turns into a tiger once the green flag drops.

With a speed of 201.231 mph, the Rahal-Letterman driver, Rice edged out teammate Vitor Meira by only .264 mph, or 0.0051 seconds on the 1.33 mile concrete track. It was the second straight pole for Rice, his last coming at Kansas Speedway two weeks ago.

"We have an all-Rahal front row," Rice said. "Hopefully, we can finish this way again tomorrow night here at Nashville. We've got to make the most of what we've got happening here. It's been superb."

The top starting spot puts Rice in an excellent position for winning his third race in 2004.

"It's going to be key to make sure we get through the traffic all night because this track does not present itself to a two-groove track," Rice said.

Rice's run wasn't a track record. Scott Dixon set that record in 2003 with a speed of 206.211 mph, nearly 5 mph faster.

Bryan Herta will start third on Saturday evening's grid followed by Dan Wheldon, Darren Manning, Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon, Sam Hornish Jr. and Tomas Scheckter to round out the top-ten.

The top-five starters are using Honda engines, those of Dan Wheldon, Tony Kanaan, Brian Herta, Rice and Meira.

Meira, the first driver to make a qualifying attempt, lapped the Superspeedway in 23.2874 seconds, 200.967 mph. It is the first time Rahal Letterman Racing teammates have shared the front row in the IndyCar Series.

"We've had a good car since the beginning," said Meira,"We were first place in the first practice and also first place in the second practice. We thought we had a good shot for pole, and we did. Being the first one to go out is not the most comfortable situation. It may pay off, but most of the time, it doesn't. I think we did pretty good, being the first ones to go out. I'm happy for Rahal Letterman Racing, and I'm also happy for Honda, with the top five cars."

Felipe Giaffone lost his original qualifying spot because of an airbox problem and then were unable to get through the tech line in time. By not making it in time, Giaffone was only allowed to make one lap and qualified 19th on the field.

It hurt a lot, explained Giaffone, "We struggled all day with different issues during each session, which hurt us. We'll work on it for tomorrow. Last race, we were OK, and we should be all right to smooth things out for tomorrow."

FOR FULL RESULTS... (Speed News Now)