Rice is fearless. He has to be. One of the hottest young drivers on the IRL IndyCar racing series, Rice spends a disproportionate amount of his life traveling at speeds that a highway patrol radar gun probably wouldn’t even register. In his line of work, fear is always impractical, and often, it’s downright dangerous. “In this sport, if you’re scared, you’d better get your ass out of the car,” Rice says. “First, it’s just not fun. And also, you don’t have time to second-guess yourself. Your life depends on split-second decisions, and if you mess up, you could take a lot of other people with you. The magnitude could be enormous.” Fortunately, Rice’s decisions, on and off the track, have been spot-on – and that’s had enormous magnitude in a very, very good way.
Baseball and Gearshifts
Rice’s dad built and raced drag cars, and little Buddy (born in 1976) was competing in karts by the age of 11. Torn between a passion for racing and a love of baseball, he excelled at both for a time. But by 1992, when Rice turned 16, the track had become his focus, and he started to run for factory teams. As the wins piled up, the young driver knew he’d made the right choice.
Impressive showings in the Dodge Shelby Pro Series, Europe’s Nations Cup, and other events led to three years in the Toyota Atlantic Series, beginning at Long Beach in 1998, when Rice became the first driver in Toyota Atlantic history to start from the pole in his inaugural race. By 2000, he’d won the championship – and soon after the prestigious IndyCar Series beckoned.
Low-Key and Full-Out
In his very first Indy Racing League event, for Red Bull Cheever Racing in 2002, Rice started and finished second. Out of five races to finish out the year, he finished among the top ten four times – two times in the top five. In 2003, he logged four top-ten IRL finishes and made his rookie appearance at the Indianapolis 500, finishing eleventh. He also made his first foray into the NASCAR Truck Series, racing the Number 88 Silverado at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
After three years with Team Rahal Letterman Racing, Rice will start the 2008 season in a new IRL seat, driving for Team Dreyer and Reinbold Racing (DRR).
The IRL Series is long and grueling, with sixteen events in just eight months. And as for the off-season – it’s a myth. “It keeps you busy,” admits Rice with a good-natured shrug. “As soon as we stop racing, we go into testing mode.” But yet Rice acknowledges that he’s tempted to pack even more into his year-round schedule: “There’s the possibility that folks may see me doing some Grand Am endurance racing and more of the Truck Series in the future, too,” he comments.
In addition to working with DRR to test and fine-tune the Number 15 Honda he races, Rice puts in serious time with a trainer every day to maintain the combination of physical endurance and flexibility that’s key to survival in the cockpit. His hobbies are also physically demanding – away from the track, the driver enjoys unwinding with adventure sports like snowboarding and mountain biking.
Still, Buddy Rice feels that, for all of his hard work and natural talent, he’s gotten some lucky breaks. He’s always had the skills, the dedication, and the cojones to be an IRL winner, but other components of success aren’t necessarily under a driver’s control. “There are a lot of good drivers who will never get the opportunity to race at this level,” he acknowledges. “There are just too few seats. Or, you can get a seat but end up with car failure that makes you look like a chump.”
On race day, Rice’s demeanor is much like that of his favorite actor, Clint Eastwood. He’s not the type of athlete who needs to get hyper and pumped-up to compete. Rice works best when everything is low-key. “There are so many variables in a race,” he explains. “I just like to stay quiet and deal with each thing as it comes. A lot depends on how you handle that kind of pressure, and it seems like I’m able to handle it pretty well.”
