American driver Rice takes flag at Indy 500

INDIANAPOLIS -- Raise the Stars & Stripes. Sing the "The Star-Spangled Banner." There's an American champion at the Indianapolis 500.

Unlikely victor Buddy Rice, at Indy for only the second time, raced to the win Sunday in a race shortened 50 miles by rain.

But don't think the driver from Phoenix didn't deserve his first Indy Racing League victory. He and his Rahal Letterman Racing team dominated at the speedway all month, winning the pole and the pit crew contest before taking the checkered flag -- the first to do that since Bobby Unser and Team Penske accomplished the same trifecta in 1981.

Seeing a driver from the United States in Victory Circle at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has become almost a rarity -- especially with all the recent defections by American open-wheel drivers like Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne to NASCAR.

No U.S.-born driver had won here since Eddie Cheever in 1998, and the only other Americans to drink the victory milk at Indy since 1989 are Rick Mears (1991), Al Unser Jr. (1992 and 1994) and Buddy Lazier (1996).

"Hopefully, it gives people a shot in the arm right now," the 28-year-old Rice said. "There's a ton of talent in this country."

Indy held its first 500-mile race in 1911 and has always had a foreign flavor, drawing many stars from around the world. But American drivers like Foyt, Mears, Unser, Rutherford and Sneva also established their reputations at the Brickyard.

Bobby Rahal, co-owner of the winning team with television talk-show host David Letterman, has hired foreign drivers like Sweden's Kenny Brack, whose serious injuries from an accident last fall opened the door for Rice, and Brazilian Vitor Meira, who finished sixth on Sunday.