It's Finally Official: Rice And Fisher

Posted by Iannucci | 1/30/2007 | 5 comments »
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IndyStar is breaking the news and it's the best case scenario. It will be two cars for Dreyer & Reinbold in 2007.

The #5 will be driven by Sarah Fisher.

The #15 will be driven by Buddy Rice (which is the same number he had with Rahal Letterman Racing).

No word yet on sponsorship for their dynamic duo.

Sure Rice had it pretty rough the last few years, but Fisher has to be encouraged at how well his last female teammate fared. Can this be the year of Fishermania?

UPDATE: Courtesy of IndyCar.com:

Buddy is slated to race all 17 races while Sarah will be driving only at the 12 ovals.

“We are very excited to add Buddy Rice to our team with all the changes we have made during the off-season,” Reinbold said. “We have made a commitment to focus on the future and with Buddy joining our team we can continue to strive to meet our goals for 2007 and beyond.

“Sarah really showed us she had matured as a racer and we were eager to sign her to the team for 2007. Sarah is very professional and will represent our sponsors well both on and off the track.”

Returning for its fourth sponsorship season is Roll Coater, which coats steel for multiple industrial uses. Joining the team will be EurUp Energy Drink on Fisher’s car and Bitburger on Rice’s car. The 106th St. Grill will also celebrate its seventh season with the team. Racing for Kids, for whom Buhl has served as national spokesman since 1989, also will partner with the team.

“We are still working to fill out the rest of our sponsorship budget for the 2007 season, but thankfully we were far enough along at this point to be able to go forward with a two-car program,” Buhl said. “We’ve been very busy getting ready for this season and are energized about our preparation. Though we still have plenty of work to do before Homestead, we are confident we will be ready.”

5 comments

  1. Anonymous // January 30, 2007 1:36 PM  

    Man, they really like to wait until the last minute. It has been a real nail-biter whether or not Sarah was going to actually drive this year...

    *YAY!*

  2. Anonymous // January 30, 2007 1:42 PM  

    Thats exciting news! Glad Buddy got a new ride and I think that with three women competing in the IRL this year (presuming Milka Duno will be joining the crowd) the league should get a lot of postive publicity and have a greater buzz going into the season than any year previous. Hopefully they can run competitively to help draw more fans and greater TV ratings and diffuse potential criticims that having three women competing is just a publicity stunt.

    Speaking of Milka, isn't she Venezualan, and is there a possbility she might be sponored CITGO which I believe is owned to some degree by the Venuazualan government? Given the relations with our two countries perhaps is it possible we could even have some political intrigue this year?

    IRL Fan Dan

  3. pressdog // January 30, 2007 1:55 PM  

    I've had Fisher Fever since 1999 -- and I just wet my pants.

  4. Anonymous // January 30, 2007 6:39 PM  

    p-dog, I think Flomax could help with that.

  5. Anonymous // February 02, 2007 9:36 AM  

    Call them Team Sushi (rice and fish)


    LOL...I crack me up. ;-)