[rustyfan]

Originally Posted by Tenoch

whoa martinez outqualified Buddy Rice.

Seems Rice was hampered a great deal by technical problems:

Buddy Rice's first official day as a Champ Car driver was nothing short of disappointing but it had nothing to do with his driving.

"Don't judge Buddy by what happened today because it was all on us, we screwed him," said Neil Mickelwright, president and general manager of Forsythe Racing. "We cost him and David (Martinez) the first practice session and then we held him in the pits too long during qualifying.

"I feel bad and we'll try to make it up to him tomorrow."

Rice, who is pretty much auditioning for a ride with Gerry Forsythe this weekend, had never driven the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez prior to Friday morning and he only turned a dozen hot laps because of a couple major oversights.

From the Friday Notes at SpeedTV.com.