Buddy Rice Quotations

It's hard to put into words, shaking hands with the most powerful man in the world.

Mile tracks put more emphasis on the driver. On the longer tracks, you can drive flat out all the way around, so it's more of an engineering exercise. On a mile, you can't run flat out. You're constantly in traffic, there's more driver involvement.

It's always a little different, racing on your hometown track. It makes it more special.

Between us and the writers, it was comedy hour the whole time. We could hardly get through it.

I don't think you'll understand the true repercussions of what the 500 does for you until years down the road.

I've always loved old hot rods. I have four or five of them at home that I work on when I'm not working out.

It's pretty cool to be able to hang out with the President and have the race-winning car on the South Lawn.

When the car's going well, I purr like a kitten.

Its always a little different, racing on your hometown track. It makes it more special.

I've always been under the radar.

Things happen for a reason. We'll see where life takes me from here.

In the past, people said I wasn't focused and didn't give it the time. That's a bunch of crap. I'm not doing anything different now than I did before.

You have to take everything as it comes.

No matter if I have a job for one weekend or for the next year, or three years, I'm going to drive the same way. That's the way I am. I'm going to give it everything I have.

You have to take the hits as they come and you have to take the opportunities.

There's a ton of talent in this country. Some just need to be given a shot.

I'm not promoting myself as the next great American driver, as some people are describing me. If that's what people want to call me, fine. But I've got more important things to focus on.

Nobody in the paddock was happier to see last season end than I. I worked hard this off season and I am really looking forward to 2006. I am optimistic that this is going to be a big year for us. There is a lot of similarity between this year and 2004 in that a lot of people are overlooking us heading into the season. I think we will surprise a few of the so called experts.

Pikes Peak is a nice track and it is a lot of fun to drive. The high altitude does have an effect on the power of the engine, but Honda does a great job of adjusting to the thin air. We have some new things on the car that I think will help make us more competitive. I'd like to see our luck change at Pikes Peak.

Some guys (in the IRL) are big on chasing the camera, ... and those guys are a little bit upset (over the media frenzy surrounding her).

It feels good to be back on a road circuit. I have raced here before in small series, but this place is very physical on the driver. We worked well in the morning and learned quite a number of things. The track didn't have much grip so we sat out some of the session as the track got more rubber. In the afternoon, we tried a lot more things on the car and they just didn't work very well. So we'll go back to what we used in the morning. I think we all got a little excited to road race again. I know I was over driving the car too much at times. We haven't had a road racing event since April at St. Pete and we all enjoy this kind of driving. I feel we learned a lot today and should be much better on Saturday.

I was never happier to see a season end than I was last year. I was really frustrated by the tough run of luck we had last season, but a few months away from the daily grind, and I am ready to go. I feel like we can return to the form that made us a championship contender in 2004.

Well, I think he had a lot of heart. That guy put everything he had into becoming a race car driver. At least he went out on the top step, where he wanted to be at, in the top level. So he fulfilled his dream, everything he wanted.

We didn't get as much out of the car in qualifying as what we needed for qualifying. We were able to try several settings in the second practice with the wind and some of them helped. We want to be prepared for any kind of conditions in the race. Last year, we had some trouble early, but that was a freak deal. This year is a whole another year. Now we'll be ready for the race. We were able to run some race setup in practice with full tanks. I was pleased with the car in that configuration. We just couldn't get the speed for qualifying. Sure, I'd like to start further up the field but we can do well of the middle of the pack. The race is much different than qualifying.

We all know what we're doing when we go out there.

The track was really slick and dirty this morning. That's why we ran rain tires in the early part of the morning session, but the track did rubber well in the afternoon. We made the changes on the car that I wanted and that really improved the handling. The track is a little bumpy than last year, but we can deal with that. I'm a little upset because what always happens on the a street course happened on the last lap. I felt I was on a 63 flat (seconds) lap and the yellow came out and we didn't the lap in. That seems to happen a lot on the street course. Right when you have everything together for a flying lap, boom, the yellow comes out. It is frustrating. But we'll be better on Saturday.

Racing is what we do. So, despite the unfortunate circumstances, we have to be ready to race this weekend.

They're having a rough time, but they'll get better next year.

It was short but he got to do what he wanted to do and he made it to the top level. That's a part of our job. It just comes with the territory and its just how its going to be.

For a lot of us, to get off the ovals, and get on up to the road course, there's definitely a lot of excitement. Everybody's really looking forward to it.

It's been a long time coming, but now we have a fine facility for first responders.

It's great to finally have a full-blown solid weekend. The pit stops were excellent like always. The car was good. (Engineer) Tim (Reiter) and I hit it off all weekend. We've been spot on, didn't make hardly any changes. The Honda power was awesome this weekend.

It's great to finally have a full-blown solid weekend. Pit strategy was the main thing, just like everybody anticipated.

Dario had the most dominant car, but they made a mistake in the pits and he didn't win it. Danny had the most consistent day and ended up winning it.

That guy put everything he had into becoming a race car driver.

It needs to happen. Even if we are the dominant one right now, it can switch back in any direction. We'll never get back to the way we were as long as there's a split. If there's two series, we'll never get back to that. Everybody knows that. It's just (a question of) whether they'll do it or not.

She'll never see a pack tighter than what she'll see here. And it's at night, so it might be a little different. There's a steep learning curve.

In some ways, all of their money and effort for all of us paid off for them. It should work that way for everybody. Everyone who's come through that organization has made it somewhere because of them.

I don't see them coming back together anytime soon. A bunch of people have tried to do it and it hasn't happened, so I don't see it happening anytime soon.

The car was flat out all the way around, and that is all it had. It definitely helps that we tested here last week and the team was able to pick up some additional information. I think we have a good racecar, too. This is a trick track, and the race is always crowded and busy throughout the 200 laps. We haven't had the best luck this year, but the Sonoma race was a confidence builder for the No. 15 Argent Mortgage/Pioneer team.

The luck we've had has been kind of unexplainable, but this was a good rebound for us.