The three Dreyer & Reinbold Racing drivers — Buddy Rice, Sarah Fisher and Roger Yasukawa — battled elements on and off the track Sunday in the 91st running of the Indianapolis 500 Sunday.

After several weeks of superb weather at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, rain storms threatened the famed Brickyard from the morning into the evening. The 200-lap classic almost didn't begin at the 1:11 p.m. starting due to morning showers and the race was stopped at lap 113 for a heavy downpour. After a two and a half hour delay, the race restarted 6:03 p.m.

But the race was finally halted at the 166-lap mark after a spectacular crash with Marco Andretti and Dan Wheldon took Rice out of the race on the back straightaway. As the safety teams cleaned up that wreck, the skies opened up again and forced the checkered flag to be flown for Scotsman Dario Franchitti, who takes his first Indy 500. Franchitti also won the 12 Hours of Sebring sports car event in March, making him the first driver to win both races in the same year.

For Rice, the 2004 Indy 500 winner, it was a bittersweet race after he came from his 16th starting position to run in the top five at the middle of the race in the No. 15 A1 TEAM USA/DRR Honda Dallara. He was closing in on a top ten finish Sunday when he was struck from behind in the Andretti-Wheldon incident. Rice completed 162 laps and placed 25th overall in his fourth Indy 500 start.

For Fisher, in her sixth Indy event, today's race saw a myriad events in the No. 5 AAMCO Transmission/DRR Honda Dallara as she finished 18th. The only woman to record a podium finish in IndyCar Series history survived a pit incident with Jacques Lazier's car and wild traffic from her 21st starting position. The three-time “Most Popular Driver” completed 164 laps Sunday.

Yasukawa, the fastest qualifier on the third day of time trials last weekend, also had a couple of pit issues in the No. 24 Wellman-Corbier Custom Homes/DRR Honda Dallara Sunday. The Los Angeles driver made some early passes from his 23rd starting spot. But he had to pit a couple of times due to fueling problems. The early stops put Yasukawa a lap behind at Lap 30 and he could never get back on the lead lap and finished 21st. Roger made his fifth Indy 500 start Sunday in his return to the IndyCar Series since last May.

Buddy Rice
“I saw Marco get up in the air and I had to slow way down and avoid the crash. But then someone just punted me from behind. I just couldn't do anything about it. I guess some of the guys behind me didn't see the crash. It is a shame because after the last pit stop the car really felt good. I was moving well and looking to make some passes. I feel we had a top ten finish in the A1 TEAM USA Honda. The crew had some great stops today and we had a little bit of bad luck before the rain delay. We pitted on the green right before John Andretti's crash. Had we been able to pit under that yellow flag, we would have had a car towards the top five then. We were right behind Vitor prior to the crash and he came out fourth. This Dreyer & Reinbold team is coming together more and more with each race. We learned more about the car and the crew today. It's too bad we had to finish this way.”

Sarah Fisher
“We had a pretty good car, we just didn't have everything go our way. As competitive as this sport is, it's really difficult unless everything goes your way. I thought I caught up to traffic a couple of times, and had some pit stop issues. We have a pretty good car, we know where it's at and I think that's going to be good for us going to Milwaukee. We'll think about it and try to bring the car and driver together.”

Roger Yasukawa
"It was unfortunate that we had to cut short because of the rain. The car was excellent for the first 100 laps and I was pretty confident going back out there but things didn't really go our way at the end of the race. I think the competitiveness of the league gets tougher every year. Being able to come here in the second week and do what we've done, I think the crew did an excellent job and I'm really happy. I want to thank Wellman-Corbier Custom Homes for their support and hopefully we can go from here.”

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Dreyer & Reinbold