Buddy Lazier

Robert Buddy Lazier
Buddy Lazier at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May 2008.
Nationality	American
Born	October 31, 1967 (1967-10-31) Vail, Colorado
Related to	Bob Lazier (father) Jaques Lazier (brother)
IRL IndyCar Series
Years active	1996–2009
Teams	Hemelgarn Racing Sam Schmidt Motorsports Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Panther Racing
Starts	100
Wins	8
Poles	2
Best finish	1st in 2000
Previous series
1989–1995	PPG Indycar Series
Championship titles
2000	Indycar Champion
Awards
1996 2003	Indianapolis 500 Winner Scott Brayton Trophy

Robert Buddy Lazier (born October 31, 1967 in Vail, Colorado) is an American Indycar driver. He won the 1996 Indianapolis 500 and has finished in the Top Ten in that race six times. Both his father Bob Lazier and brother Jaques Lazier are veterans of the Indy 500 as well.

Career

1989-2005

Lazier first appeared in the PPG Indycar Series beginning in 1989 driving for Gary Trout Motorsports and also participated in The Indy 500 as a rookie. In preparation for the founding of the Indy Racing League in 1996, he signed with Ron Hemelgarn's Hemelgarn Racing whom he drove in the Indianapolis 500 for in 1991.

Buddy Lazier driving at Laguna Seca in 1991

Buddy was one of the drivers in the first Indy Racing League (IRL) sanctioned race and won the 1996 Indianapolis 500, 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 Indycar series championship followed by a second place effort in 2001. Hemelgarn racing lost their sponsor following the 2003 season and Buddy only completed in the Indy 500 in 2004 for Hemelgarn and was signed to drive the 2005 Indy 500 for the Byrd Brothers and Panther Racing, placing fifth in the race, ahead of Panther's two regular drivers Tomáš Enge and Tomas 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 on July 24. Enge was injured during a crash at the Nashville Superspeedway during the Firestone 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 in Robbie Buhl's Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.

2006–2009

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 the Watkins Glen International race and Briscoe finished third. He was replaced again by Briscoe after the Kansas Speedway race on July 2, finishing a disappointing 15th after starting seventh. Lazier returned for the Michigan International Speedway race in August, but Sarah 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 with Sam Schmidt Motorsports to race in the 2007 Indianapolis 500. Without a permanent ride, Lazier drove in a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race with Billy Ballew Motorsports at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on September 22 of that year and finished 24th.

Lazier practicing for the 2008 Indianapolis 500

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 bump Roger 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. Coming off the success of the 2008 race, the team entered the same combination for the 2009 Indianapolis 500. However, against a stiffer field of entrants and with limited practice time, Lazier was unable to find enough speed to qualify and was one of three cars to miss the field. Lazier failing to qualify ended his streak of 14 consecutive Indy 500 starts, the longest among active drivers, dating back to 1995.

Motorsports career results

American open–wheel

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

PPG Indycar Series

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Rank	Points
1989	Lazier	PHX	LBH	INDY INJ	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	MEA	TOR	MIS	POC	MDO	ROA	NZR	LS DNQ			NC	-
1990	Hemelgarn	PHX	LBH	INDY DNQ	MIL	DET DNQ	POR 13	CLE Ret	MEA	TOR DNS		DEN DNQ	VAN 12	MDO Ret	ROA DNS	NZR Ret	LS		30th	1
	Arciero										MIS Ret
1991	Coyne	SRF Ret	LBH Ret	PHX			DET 18	POR	CLE 11	MEA	TOR Ret	MIS	DEN 9	VAN		ROA Ret	NZR	LS Ret	22nd	6
	Hemelgarn				INDY Ret	MIL
	Walker														MDO Ret
1992	Coyne	SRF 16	PHX 14	LBH Ret	INDY Ret	DET Ret	POR Ret	MIL 17	NHM	TOR Ret	MIS 7	CLE Ret	ROA 13	VAN 10	MDO Ret	NZR 15	LS Ret		19th	10
1993	Leader Card	SRF Ret	PHX Ret	LBH 19	INDY DNQ	MIL 15	DET Ret	POR	CLE Ret	TOR	MIS Ret	NHM DNQ	ROA 14	VAN	MDO 20	NZR Ret	LS DNQ		38th	0
1994	Leader Card	SRF DNQ	PHX 13	LBH Ret	INDY DNQ	MIL 18	DET 17	POR Ret	CLE	TOR DNQ	MIS Ret	MDO DNQ	NHM DNS	VAN Ret	ROA	NZR DNQ	LS		36th	0
1995	Project Indy	MIA	SRF Ret	PHX	LBH							TOR 15	CLE						35th	0
	Payton/Coyne					NZR Ret		MIL 18	DET	POR	ROA			MIS 14	MDO	NHM Ret	VAN	LS
	Menard						INDY Ret

IZOD IndyCar Series

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
1996	Hemelgarn	WDW Ret	PHX DNS	INDY 1																	14th	53
1996–1997	Hemelgarn	NHM Ret	LVS Ret	WDW 5	PHX Ret	INDY 4	TXS Ret	PPIR 8	CLT 1	NH2 12	LV2 Ret										8th	209
1998	Hemelgarn	WDW Ret	PHX Ret	INDY 2	TXS Ret	NHM 7	DOV 2	CLT 13	PPI 7	ATL Ret	TX2 6	LVS 3									5th	262
1999	Hemelgarn	WDW 10	PHX Ret	INDY 7	TXS 14	PPIR 5	ATL Ret	DOV 2	PPI2 4	LVS 11	TX2 10										6th	224
2000	Hemelgarn	WDW 2	PHX 1	LVS Ret	INDY 2	TXS 7	PPIR Ret	ATL 2	KTY 1	TX2 4											1st	290
2001	Hemelgarn	PHX 3	HMS Ret	ATL 6	INDY 18	TXS 4	PPIR 1	RIR 1	KAN 5	NSH 1	KTY 1	STL 13	CHI 11	TX2 Ret							2nd	398
2002	Hemelgarn	HMS Ret	PHX 7	FON 7	NZR Ret	INDY Ret	TXS 8	PPIR 15	RIR Ret	KAN 7	NSH Ret	MIS 13	KTY 3	STL 15	CHI 3	TX2 7					8th	305
2003	Hemelgarn	HMS DNP	PHX 11	MOT Ret	INDY Ret	TXS 13	PPIR 10	RIR 20	KAN 13	NSH Ret	MIS 12	STL 11	KTY 16	NZR 13	CHI 16	FON DNP	TX2 DNP				19th	201
2004	Hemelgarn	HMS	PHX	MOT	INDY Ret	TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIL	MIS	KTY	PPIR	NZR	CHI	FON	TX2				30th	12
2005	Panther	HMS	PHX	STP	MOT	INDY 5	TXS DNP	RIR DNP	KAN DNP	NSH 9	MIL Ret	MIS 6	KTY 6	PPIR DNP	SNM DNP	CHI 10	WGL DNP	FON DNP			23rd	140
2006	Dreyer & Reinbold	HMS Ret	STP Ret	MOT 14	INDY 12	WGL DNP	TXS Ret	RIR 16	KAN 15	NSH DNP	MIL DNP	MIS 15	KTY DNP	SNM DNP	CHI DNP						18th	122
2007	Sam Schmidt	HMS	STP	MOT	KAN	INDY 19	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	NSH	MDO	MIS	KTY	SNM	DET	CHI			28th	12
2008	Hemelgarn	HMS	STP	MOT1	LBH1	KAN	INDY 17	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	NSH	MDO	EDM	KTY	SNM	DET	CHI	SRF2	37th	13
2009	Hemelgarn	STP	LBH	KAN	INDY DNQ	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	TOR	EDM	KTY	MDO	SNM	CHI	MOT	HMS			NC	0

Years	Teams	Races	Poles	Wins	Podiums (Non-win)	Top 10s (Non-podium)	Indianapolis 500 Wins	Championships
13	4	100	2	8	10	27	1 (1996)	1 (2000)

Indy 500 results

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team
1989	March	Cosworth	Practice Crash		Lazier
1990	Lola	Cosworth	Did Not Qualify		Hemelgarn
1991	Lola	Buick	23rd	33rd	Hemelgarn
1992	Lola	Buick	24th	14th	Leader Cards
1993	Lola	Buick	Did Not Qualify		Leader Cards
1994	Lola	Ilmor	Did Not Qualify		Leader Cards
1995	Lola	Menard-Buick	23rd	27th	Menard
1996	Reynard	Ford-Cosworth	5th	1st	Hemelgarn
1997	Dallara	Oldsmobile	10th	4th	Hemelgarn
1998	Dallara	Oldsmobile	11th	2nd	Hemelgarn
1999	Dallara	Oldsmobile	22nd	7th	Hemelgarn
2000	Dallara	Oldsmobile	16th	2nd	Hemelgarn
2001	Dallara	Oldsmobile	10th	18th	Hemelgarn
2002	Dallara	Chevrolet	20th	15th	Hemelgarn
2003	Dallara	Chevrolet	21st	21st	Hemelgarn
2004	Dallara	Chevrolet	28th	23rd	Hemelgarn
2005	Dallara	Chevrolet	9th	5th	Panther
2006	Dallara	Honda	25th	12th	Dreyer & Reinbold
2007	Dallara	Honda	22nd	19th	Schmidt
2008	Dallara	Honda	32nd	17th	Hemelgarn
2009	Dallara	Honda	Did Not Qualify		Hemelgarn

External links

• Buddy Lazier Photos

Sporting positions
Preceded by Jacques Villeneuve	Indianapolis 500 Winner 1996	Succeeded by Arie Luyendyk
Preceded by Greg Ray	Indy Racing Northern Lights Series Champion 2000	Succeeded by Sam Hornish, Jr.
Awards
Preceded by Arie Luyendyk	Scott Brayton Award 2003	Succeeded by Helio Castroneves