Buddy Rice first visited Watkins Glen International in 1997 his teammate, Sarah Fisher, made her first visit today in 2007 and it showed for both. The 2004 Indianapolis 500 champion, Rice, ran up front and ran strong finishing one spot up from where he qualified. As he took the checkered flag in the sixth position, he ran out of fuel going into Turn 1 while teammate Sarah Fisher simply looked to gain experience while finishing 16th in her second road course race ever.
“We fell back at the start but we made a quick adjustment to Buddy’s car and from that time on, we had a very good race car. Unfortunately, we were really tight on fuel and we ran out just past the start finish line. Besides that, we would have been able to go out there and race harder. Unfortunately, we were tight the way the strategy played out. We couldn’t really race at the end we just had to play the fuel conservation games. So we didn’t really have a chance at that point and time to do any better. We’re pretty happy with our finish and we still have good momentum going into Nashville. ”
Rice’s day didn’t start as expected rolling off the grid in the seventh position with a major push. Rice thought he had the wrong gear in the car than everyone else in the field which caused him to lose ground quickly. He had fell back to the 12th position on Lap 1. Fisher’s crew decided early she would pit off sequence from the leaders so she could gain as much experience as possible. Her first pit stop was on Lap 14 while teammate Rice’s was on Lap 15 where they fixed his heavy push.
The driver of the No. 15 Roll Coater Honda powered Dallara fell back as far as 15th by Lap 23 but then began his trip to the front. By Lap 26 Rice was in the seventh position and continued to move to the front. By Lap 35 he was running second. While the field pitted including Rice, everyone cycled and swapped positions. He was in the eighth position on Lap 44 and in the seventh position on Lap 48 by Lap 51, he was sixth.
“We wanted to get in the Top-five today and we wanted to get in the Fast Six yesterday and I think we would have had a little bit more, ” said Rice, who had a best finish at The Glen of fourth and came in 2006. “Our stint sucked today and we’ll fix that for the next around at Mid Ohio and we’ll just keep progressing. It was another good day for DRR. ”
Fisher was spent the time during the race trying to work on more corner speed while turning. But, the hard she rolled it in, the more the front of her car gave out. At times, she felt she wasn’t able to challenge it. In the end, she radioed to her crew as she crossed the start/finish line, that, “; This experience was really good for me. Thanks for the help. ”
“I’m happy to have had the experience I got in the car today, ” said Fisher, who made her first start at Watkins Glen today. “Not many people get a turn with this little experience. I learned a lot today and quite frankly, the whole weekend we just kept learning. We’ll carry all this into Mid Ohio for our next road course. ”
The day started with a morning practice session with all drivers. Rice led the DRR American due with Rice clocking a speed of 130.886 mph good enough for 14th on the speed charts while teammate Fisher clocked in at 124.913 mph. During practice, Rice complained of push and that the car was too loose and the need for more downforce. He was bottoming out uphill and in the bus stop. Simply stated, the car just wasn’t settled and he was skating around the track. He noted that he thought everyone had trouble passing during the session. On the other hand, Fisher was having to short shift and had a push in the center of the corner because she needed to come into the corner harder. She was neutral coming off the corner. Her session ended early due to a miscommunication on the amount fuel needed to finish the session. Dixon was quickest during morning practice with a speed of 133.554 mph.
Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon took the checkered flag for a third consecutive season. Rice will stay 11th in the points while Fisher stays at 16th in the points.
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