Giebler Wins Indy 500 Rookie of Year Honors

May 29, 2007 (photo: LAT/www.speedtv.com)
Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. – One of the busiest race weekends of the season saw several Team USA Scholarship alumni making their mark, highlighted by Phil Giebler (2000) deservedly taking home the prestigious Indianapolis 500 Chase Rookie of the Year Award despite crashing out of the race after 106 laps.
Giebler’s deal with Playa Del Racing – running the unfashionable Panoz chassis – meant he was eligible to run only on the final week of qualifying. He was quickly up to speed, but then overstepped the limit during his first attempt to qualify and crashed into the wall in Turn Two. His team worked wonders to repair the car for another attempt the following day, whereupon Giebler qualified comfortably on the back row of the 33-car starting grid. He was the fastest rookie qualifier with a four-lap average of 219.637 mph.

The Oxnard, Calif., native struggled for pace in the early stages of the race but displayed his ability by soon working the #31 Ethos Fuel Reformulator Panoz-Honda into the top 20. He was eventually caught out by a combination of cold tires and slower traffic immediately after a restart on the 107th lap.

“It truly was a fight out there,” said Giebler, who was unhurt in the incident. “It really is a shame that I couldn’t give all the Playa Del Racing and Ethos Fuel Reformulator guys a better finish, but I think we learned a lot and hopefully we can find the funding for some more races this season.”

Fellow former Team USA Scholarship winners Jeff Simmons (1999) and Buddy Rice (1997) also performed well in the “Greatest Spectacle of Racing.” Simmons led a lap and ran strongly for most of the day aboard Rahal Letterman Racing’s #17 Team Ethanol Dallara-Honda before finishing 11th. Rice, who of course won the Indy 500 for Rahal Letterman in 2004, was classified 25th in Dreyer & Reinbold Racing’s #15 A1 Team USA Dallara-Honda after being eliminated in a crash which also took out Marco Andretti and Dan Wheldon.

Meanwhile, on Memorial Day at Lime Rock Park, Conn., Paul Edwards (1998) looked set to win the Rolex Sports Car Series GT race with teammate Kelly Collins until their factory-backed Banner Racing Pontiac GXP.R suffered a puncture and then incurred a drive-through penalty. Edwards and Collins had to be content with a fourth-place finish, which moved them to within nine points of the championship lead.

Andy Lally (1999), who had won the previous Rolex GT race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, finished third in Monday’s Koni Challenge Series race Lime Rock, sharing a Porsche 997 with Ted Ballou, while A.J Allmendinger (2001) was running solidly in the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on Sunday evening until his #84 Red Bull Toyota was eliminated in a crash along with series points leader Jeff Gordon.