Lazier

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- The 2003 Indy Racing League season hasn't been kind to 2000 series champion Buddy Lazier. Fortunately for him, he knows something about racing from behind.

Lazier, the 1996 Indianapolis 500 winner, skipped the initial IRL event of the season three weeks ago in Florida after he and Ron Hemelgarn, who owns his Chevrolet-powered Dallara, decided it wasn't ready. It was the first of 71 races since the IRL was formed that Lazier had to watch from the infield.

On Saturday, he qualified just 15th out of 22 entrants for Sunday's Indy 200 at Phoenix International Raceway.

But Lazier has history on his side: In 2000, he became the fourth driver in Phoenix IndyCar history to start last and finish first. The others were Mike Mosley (1974), Tom Sneva (1980) and Roberto Guerrero (1987).

That victory -- the first of Lazier's two in 2000 -- was unique because it was the only one for Riley & Scott before the company stopped making IRL chassis.

The winning chassis wasn't unboxed until the day before the race, after Lazier complained about handling problems in the Riley & Scott he used for qualifying. It had never turned a wheel until race day, but Lazier came from 26th at the start to take the checkered flag.

Back-to-back poles
With his 178.51 mph qualifying lap Saturday, Andretti Green Racing's Tony Kanaan became the quickest to join the IndyCar Series' consecutive-poles club.

"Tomorrow they'll forget who was on the pole,'' Kanaan said about the value of starting No. 1 in Sunday's 200-mile race at Phoenix International Raceway.

Kanaan was the fastest qualifier in the series opener March 1 at Homestead, Fla., his second IndyCar start. His first start was last year's Indianapolis 500, which he led for 23 laps before an accident forced him out after 89 laps.

Gil de Ferran won consecutive poles in 2002 at Pikes Peak and Richmond.

The first to accomplish the feat was 1996-97 driving champion Tony Stewart, who did it twice. Billy Boat won a series-record four straight poles in 1998, and Greg Ray won consecutive poles twice during his 1999 IRL championship season.

Sponsor buddies
Phoenix native Buddy Rice, who qualified 16th, drives for Red Bull Cheever Racing, an affiliation that has him in some exotic company.

Among Rice's group of family and friends at Phoenix International Raceway this weekend are Shawn "Barney'' Barron, a big-wave surfer, and bullfighter Hollywood Yates, both of them under contract to promote the energy-drink producer.

Rice fits in with the edgy, slighty nonconformist image. As a youngster, he rode skateboards and tried off-road bicycles.

"I did some BMXing,'' Rice said. "But I was never into the really big air.''

Now, he's into ground-hugging IndyCars.