SPEEDWAY, Ind. — IndyCar is a team sport. It takes a team to build the car, and it takes a team to keep the driver safe on the race track.
"When you're in the car, you can only see so much — so much in front of you, so much behind you. We have mirrors, you can only really see one car behind you, and you know you're mostly focused forward," said Dreyer & Reinbold Racing driver Sage Karam.
"It's nice to have eyes in the sky," Karam said, referring to his spotters.
Karam said he's fortunate enough to have "really good spotters. One spotter that's in Turn 3, we call him 'dude.' He’s been with me since the beginning really, in 2014. And we have Buddy Rice as well, and he's in Turn 1," Karam said.
Yes, that's 2004 Indy 500 champion Buddy Rice.
"It’s cool to have Buddy because he has the knowledge of the race, and he knows what to look for, and what not to look for," Karam said.
The Buddy Rice advantage
Spotters can be found above the fans at the turns. Karam said spotters let him know things like what's in front or behind him or if there's a crash. They also keep track of the wind. Karam said he does look at the flags, but they're tough to see on every lap, especially if a car is next to him.
But having champion Buddy Rice means having the advantage of having someone who has worked closely with engineers for years providing insight.
"Having Buddy up there, who's raced a long time and won the Indy 500, is crucial," Karam said.
Rice has been racing most of his life on many different courses with lots of different cars.
"I think the more diverse you are, the better it is," Rice said.
Karam said that having a champion as a spotter makes for strong and smooth communication on the radio.
"It's cool from one race car driver to talk to another race car driver, and you kind of get each other's lingo a bit better," Karam said.
"He knows what it takes to win this race. Where you need to be, what you need to do, he can kind of guide me through the race," Karam said. "He has that on-track knowledge that a lot of spotters don't have, just because they've never been racing before."
It's probably a big part as to why drivers had been asking Rice to be their spotters for a couple years.
'Drivers' lives are in their hands'
"I didn't really want to be a spotter," Rice said. "I got asked a couple times and I didn't want to do it."
He said it was the responsibility and stress of that responsibility that initially caused his hesitation.
"Drivers lives are in their hands," Karam said.
"You're going 220-230. If you make a mistake, it can be catastrophic," Rice said.
But friend after friend kept asking him to be their spotter. Eventually, he obliged a few years ago and has been spotting ever since.
"I like teaching. I like passing on the knowledge, so I think it's a good fit," Rice said.
He said he keeps coming back to the Indy 500 because of the history.
"It's the feeling of coming through the tunnel. There's nothing like it. There’s no place like it."