Rice

MADISON, Ill. -- Buddy Rice, who took over for Red Bull Cheever Racing on Saturday after rookie Tomas Scheckter refused to race, had an impressive fourth-place showing after starting 15th.

Fellow drivers were impressed with Rice, who has finished in the top five in both of his races for Eddie Cheever.

"I know Buddy quite well and I know he's capable of running very strong," third-place finisher Alex Barron said. "I knew he could do it. He's not had much time in the car but he's doing quite well."

Robby McGehee of St. Louis returned to Treadway Racing for a one-race deal and finished 12th after starting 21st. He raced for Treadway in 2000, but this is the third different team he's raced for this season.

"I think we could have had a top 10 finish if we wouldn't have developed a gearbox problem," McGehee said. "Gearboxes take a lot of abuse here and late in the race I couldn't go from fourth to fifth."

Ozzie Smith serves as grand marshal
Ozzie Smith, baseball's newest Hall of Famer, was out of his element waving the green flag as grand marshal of the IRL Gateway 250.

Smith attended the Daytona 500 several years ago, but he's not a racing fan by any means and said it's difficult to comprehend why so many people will sit and watch "cars go in circles."

"But they called me and asked me if I'd be willing to do this, and I've always seen this as a fascinating form of entertainment," Smith said. "And when you get to be this close, there's a big difference because you can feel it down deep."

Smith played for the St. Louis Cardinals, just a few miles away from Gateway International Raceway, from 1981-96 and helped them win a World Series and two NL pennants. He had been scheduled to be grand marshal for a Winston Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway, but got rained out.

"This is my rain check," he joked.

Early out
Anthony Lazzaro spun and hit the retaining wall exiting Turn 4 in practice Sunday morning. He wasn't injured but his car, which was to start 17th on the 25-man grid, was withdrawn with significant damage to the rear end and left front.

Lazzaro said he got caught behind Tony Renna in turbulent air and lost control.

"It's frustrating to get all the way here and not be able to compete," Lazzaro said. "We had gotten much better and could have done well."

Several cars zig-zagged around Lazzaro on the straightaway but Al Unser Jr. clipped him, damaging his suspension. Unser, the defending champion, was able to start in the 16th spot but was no factor, finishing seventh.

Short day
Tony Renna's car lasted only 12 laps before he retired for the day with an electrical problem. This is his fourth race of the year and the first time he wasn't able to finish.

"It looked like maybe the alternator caught on fire, maybe a short of some kind, which unfortunately put an end to the day," Renna said. "We had a really good car."

Wire to wire
Ryan Hampton of Conti-Genoa-Frost Racing led all 80 laps for his first Infiniti Pro Series victory, a prelude to the Gateway 250, by 1.9352 seconds over Arie Luyendyk Jr. Hampton, who started from the pole position, is the first driver in the history of the series to lead all the way.

"The car just worked perfect," Hampton said. "My engineer just pretty much nailed it. We spent about a half-day out here testing, and I think we found exactly that magic little piece of information."