By Dick Mittman
indy500.com
Thursday, June 3, 2004
2004 Indianapolis 500 champion Buddy Rice has topped $2 million in winnings after just two starts in the world's greatest auto race. Two-time champion Helio Castroneves is only $71,755 shy of $4 million after four starts.
Rice earned a check for $1,761,740, the largest in event history, for winning the rain-shortened race May 30 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This averages out to $9,787.44 per lap for the 180 laps and $3,914.98 per mile.
However, Rice's two-race prize take still is shy of Castroneves' total of $2,876,490 he was paid for his back-to-back victories in 2001-02. He finished second last year, earning $739,665, and ninth this year, earning $311,990, to bring his career earnings to $3,928,345.
The other Buddy in this year's race, 1996 Indy champion Buddy Lazier, fell out in 23rd place with a fuel system problem, but still received a check for $212,240. This pushed his career earnings for 12 races to $4,491,125 and moved him past four-time winner Rick Mears into third on the all-time Indy earnings list.
Both Buddys won at the age of 28.
Bobby Rahal, co-owner of Rice's No. 15 Rahal-Letterman Argent/Pioneer Panoz G Force/Honda/Firestone with late-night television host David Letterman, became the second former race winner to also become a winning team owner in the past five years. Four-time Indy champion A.J. Foyt was Kenny Brack's car owner when Brack took the checkered flag in 1999.
Ironically, Rice was driving for Rahal, the 1986 winner, because of injuries suffered by Brack last October that had not healed sufficiently to allow him to compete in May at Indy. Rice drove his first 18 Indy Racing League® IndyCar® Series races for Eddie Cheever Jr., the 1998 Indy 500 winner as a driver. Rice finished 11th as a rookie in 2003 at Indy.
Two-time Indy 500 champion Al Unser Jr. started 17th for Patrick Racing and finished 17th in his 17th start. He received a check for $220,740 to bring his career total to $5,582,610, second behind Arie Luyendyk's all-time best of $6,110,859. There now are six drivers who have won more than $4 million at Indy.
Rice's purse was an event record. It is interesting to look at winner's payoff plateaus since Ray Harroun was paid $14,250 for winning the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911.
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Joe Dawson received $20,000 the next year, and the winner's purse first topped $50,000 in 1949 when Bill Holland was paid $51,575. Sam Hanks broke the $100,000 barrier in 1957 with a payoff of $103,844. A.J. Foyt cracked the $150,000 barrier in 1964 with a check for $153,650.
Danny Sullivan's "spin and win" victory and $517,662 payoff in 1985 made him the first driver to receive a half-million dollar purse. Emerson Fittipaldi was first to collect $1 million in 1989 with a check for $1,001,604. Rice's payoff topped Castroneves' previous high of $1,606,215 in 2003.
Andretti Green Racing standout Tony Kanaan, who finished second, led 28 laps. He has a chance next year to join two of racing's all-time greats - Parnelli Jones and Jim Clark - in leading during each of their first four Indianapolis 500 starts.
Jones led 27 laps in 1961, 120 in 1962, 167 in 1963 when he won and seven in 1964. Clark, who won in 1965, led 28 in 1963, 14 in 1964, 190 in 1965 and 66 in 1966. Both Louis Meyer and Tony Stewart, like Kanaan, paced the first three races they ran at Indy but failed to do the same in the fourth.
Kanaan, who drives the No. 11 Team 7-Eleven Dallara/Honda/Firestone, led 89 laps as a rookie in 2002 and two in 2003 to go with his most recent figure for a total of 119.
Robby Gordon drove the first 27 laps of the race until the rain delay. Jaques Lazier then took over the driving duties for the next 61 laps before the car was sidelined by mechanical problems. Larry "Boom Boom" Cannon was the last relief driver, in 1977. He drove Laps 150-157 for John Mahler.
A Japanese driver did not qualify for the Indianapolis 500 until Hiro Matsushita made the race in 1991. When Kosuke Matsuura was named as the 2004 Bank One Rookie of the Year, it marked the second straight year that a driver from Japan earned that honor.
Last year, Tora Takagi was named Bank One Rookie of the Year after finishing fifth. Matsuura placed 11th and, like Takagi, was not only the highest-finishing newcomer but the fastest rookie qualifier, too.
Finally, there were 22 cars running at the finish, 14 on the lead lap. There were no engine failures among the Honda, Toyota and Chevrolet participants although the 3.0-liter engine was introduced at the track for the first time.
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