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Ready for Indy 500

Buddy Lazier
Buddy Lazier
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Even though I’ve raced here 14 times, I still get butterflies at the start of this race ” anybody does. Obviously, the rookies and some of the newer drivers will be even more nervous.

It’s gut-wrenching, very difficult physically and mentally. You need to be 100 percent focused on the task at hand for three and a half hours. And that’s really hard to do.

For those who know other sports, you have to understand that we don’t get a halftime; we don’t get a period break. This is 100 percent what we do at 100 percent intensity. This is a very serious endeavor.



Race Day is the culmination of the whole month of May ” time trials and practice ” all the work that we’ve done. If you have done all your homework and have everything right, you’ll have a good race car on Race Day and a race car that you can go to the front and win. If you missed something during the month, then you’re going to struggle on Race Day.

Sam Schmidt Motorsports got this race car one week before practice started. It was a chassis they had never worked with. All those things hurt us in practice and qualifying but we have caught up with it. I don’t think that will be a factor in the race.

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I’m basically in the front two-thirds of the lineup. I can tell you that my race car is quite a bit better than why we qualified. It’s not one of the very best cars here, but it certainly isn’t one of the worst.

I think I have an outside chance of hitting the setup just right on race day. Anytime you’re running in the top five you can win this race. It really comes down to strategy, how the race falls, and I believe we have a car that can finish in the top 10.

I’m looking forward to a good Race Day.


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