Rice battles weather, other drivers to win Indianapolis 500

INDIANAPOLIS -- If there was one nap that David Letterman was glad he never had the chance to take, it was on Sunday. \nRain dominated the day, delaying the start of the 88th running of the Indianapolis 500 for two hours and nine minutes past its scheduled 11 a.m. start, thus delaying Buddy Rice's saturated run to the finish line.\nOnce the race got started though, Rice showed the field and the spectators why he was on the pole, sitting in the lead for the first 13 laps before being overtaken by Alex Barron. \nThe clouds once again dictated the pace of the race, as the yellow caution flag was waved on Lap 22 when the skies opened on parts of the speedway, but the red flag waved on Lap 28, halting the race for an hour and 47 minutes leaving Rice in fourth place under the second caution flag of the day. \nLetterman, like most of the other fans in attendance, was unsure about the future of the race, with speculation circling the Indianapolis Motor Speedway about a possible postponement until Monday.\n"First, I just thought, well good, I can go back to the hotel and sleep -- that was my first thought," Letterman said. "And then I thought what kind of arrangements do I have to undo to come back tomorrow. And then we're sitting in the motor home, and Kenny Brack says, 'I hear race cars' and they had started the race. So we came back out and here we go."\nOnly the 1926 and 2001 Indy 500's have been restarted on the same day after a rain delay.\nLetterman wasn't the only one thinking Monday would be the conclusion of the race.\n"The team's watching the radar, and they're getting reports every 10 minutes of so from our weather station. So, we're going to try to play this as we wanted to," Rice said during the rain delay. "It just sucks, that's all. At this rate, it's going to to take so long to dry the track and do everything,"\nFrom that point on, six more yellow flags interrupted the race, with five being waved as a result of crashes. \nFifty-six of the rain shortened 180 laps were run under caution, with the second to last yellow coming on lap 132 and ending on lap 136. From there on out, under a green flag and cloud cover, the 23 cars left battled it out, knowing the next yellow due to rain would be the end of the 2004 Indy 500.\nRice held the lead position for only two laps under green before the weather turned bad once again. When rain was reported, the yellow flag came out on Lap 174, and didn't go back in its holding spot high above the finish line, as hopes of the skies drying up vanished with every lap.\nRice stayed in first place, following the pace car around for the next seven laps, leading him to his first Indy 500 championship. \nOnly 22 of the starting 33 cars finished the race, with all the accidents staying within the first 136 laps, leaving the final 44 laps to clean racing. \nRice drank his traditional bottle of milk after leading for 91 of the 180 laps. \nRice and his team pulled off the three of the biggest wins in May. He won the pole, his pit crew won the 2004 Checkers/Rally's Pit Stop Competition on Carb Day, May 27, and then the granddaddy of them all -- the Indy 500.\n"There is no question about it, it was a dream month," 1986 Indy 500 champion Bobby Rahal said. \nStaying awake for the race worked to Letterman's advantage, but he would have like to have seen the rain hold off for Rice.\n"Well, I mean, you know, I'm a little disappointed for Buddy because he could have won it on 200 no problem," Letterman said. "But it was a lovely thing. He deserved to win. There was no question about the win -- he was going to win it from the first green flag. A tremendous job on his part. I couldn't be happier."\n-- Contact Editor in Chief Josh Weinfuss at jweinfus@indiana.edu. Staff writer Stacie Vasko contributed to this article.