Ron McQueeney
FORT WORT, Tex. — Dreyer & Reinbold Racing left the Indianapolis 500 on a high having placed two cars in the top ten. Unfortunately, six days later, when practice began at Milwaukee, the team was quickly brought back down to reality.
Teammates Townsend Bell and Buddy Rice struggled in the windy conditions to setup a fast and comfortable car. With Rice qualifying 19th and Bell 21st, things were not looking good for the team.
When the race started, however, the team showed they could strike at any moment with Bell passing 11 cars on the first lap to jump into the top 10. On a later restart, he picked up two more positions to jump into eighth.
Rice himself drove a steady, competitive race. On his first pit stop, he missed his pit stall and lost all track position having to come back in on the next lap.
As the race progressed, both cars fought to stay on track, and though they lost two laps to the leader, they were involved in heavy battles all day.
Late in the race, Rice made his final pit stop nearly 30 laps before his competitors in a gamble. The goal was to have him on the track with new tires while everyone else ran old tires — all the while hoping the race stayed under green-flag conditions until everyone else had made their final stops.
Thankfully, the strategy played out, and he gained several positions.
A timely incident late in the race also aided both drivers as Vitor Meira, Ed Carpenter, and Marco Andretti were involved in a crash, allowing Rice and Bell to move and finish in 10th and 11th place, respectively.
Ryan Briscoe, a former Dreyer & Reinbold driver, won the race — his first IndyCar Series win of his career.
With that race completed, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing had Monday and Tuesday available to turn the race cars around and prepare for this weekend’s Bombardier Learjet 550 at the Texas Motor Speedway before getting on a plane on Wednesday to fly in for Saturday night’s race.
The team welcomes back Milka Duno in the #23 CITGO/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Honda Dallara for her second race in Texas (started 19th and finished 11th in 2007 for SAMAX Motorsport) while Rice, driving the #15 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Honda Dallara, returns for his eighth Texas race (best start: second in 2004 for Rahal Letterman Racing; best finish: sixth in 2002 for Red Bull Cheever Racing; started 16th and finished eighth in 2007 for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing).
In 2001, Robbie Buhl scored the best finish for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing at the Texas Motor Speedway by finishing third in that year’s fall race.
