The Indy Racing League driver carousel slowed Tuesday to pick up two
more riders as Dreyer & Reinbold announced both Buddy Rice and Sarah
Fisher as teammates of a two-car IndyCar Series entry for the 2007
campaign.
Ending speculation that one of the two veteran IRL drivers would fill
their car's seat, D&R boldly put both the 2004 Indianapolis 500 winner
(Rice) and the League's most popular driver even (Fisher) onto the
podium for the announcement.
"The reason behind (two drivers) is simple," said team co-owner Robbie
Buhl. "Sarah, Buddy and Dennis (Reinbold) all feel the same way. As
competitive as things have become in our series, when you have two cars
out there you can generate that much more information. One car can go
one direction, another car can go another direction, and hopefully by
race time, you've developed a better, more competitive race product. The
ability to overlay computer generated information in comparison to the
cars."
"It's a great tool for the engineers and a great tool for the drivers
to exchange that information," he continued, "and to compare data from
the information you're getting from all your on board sensors, so it's
one of those tools that you look to hope to have to be competitive.
Also, we didn't want to make the commitment of running with two cars if
we couldn't do it properly, which is always our goal. Right now we're
excited about the way everything is taking shape for this year."
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing has competed in the Indy Racing League season since
2000, recording a victory and two top-10 finishes. The new season will be
the first two-car entry the team has fielded since 2002 when Buhl and Fisher
drove in tandem. More significantly, the ever-popular Fisher's return comes
amidst a trio of female drivers (Fisher, Danica Patrick and Milka Duno, who
hopes to confirm a ride) that seemed unimaginable just four short years ago.
"It will be exciting for the league," said Fisher, "because it's
something they can sell and it will be great entertainment to see (three
women) driving. I focus more on the individual drivers themselves and
who you're competing against, but it will be neat to have three (female)
drivers. This is cool!"
Buddy Rice's off-season odyssey in search of a ride for the coming
season ended, as he promised, with a return to the series he has driven
in Rahal/Letterman livery for the last three years. His tenure with
Bobby Rahal's team came to a conclusion after the last 2006 race at
Chicagoland in September.
"I wanted to stay in IndyCar racing," he said. "When I started talking
with Dennis and Robbie, I knew the steps they were taking to make their
team more competitive. They wanted to move up the ladder and make sure
that they were competitive and a front running team. They're a long
supporter of the (IndyCar Series), and to be honest, I'm excited to
be back on a full time basis. I'm looking forward to being back in
competitive race cars and at the Indy 500. It's the biggest race in
the world, and I was fortunate to win it before, and I'd like to do it
again."
