Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Felipe Giaffone replaces Buhl in No. 24 Purex car

Wednesday, April 28, 2004 | 9:07 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

When Robbie Buhl announced last Friday that he was retiring as an Indy Racing League driver to concentrate on his ownership in the Dreyer & Reinbold team he co-owns with Dennis Reinbold, Buhl and Reinbold knew exactly who they wanted to hire to drive the No. 24 Purex Dallara/Chevrolet.

And it took only a few hours for Buhl and Reinbold to sign Brazilian driver Felipe Giaffone.

"Felipe has proven to be extremely competitive and he'll be a great fit with us at Dreyer and Reinbold," Buhl said. "As I told (IRL founder) Tony George on Friday, I've got another 20 years in this series on the owner side of this car, and there's no better place to get started than Indianapolis with Felipe and our team."

Giaffone, who has two top-10 finishes in three Indy 500 starts, scored his lone IndyCar Series victory in 2002 at Kentucky Speedway with Mo Nunn Racing. He has posted 26 top-10 finishes in 39 career IRL starts, but has been out of the cockpit since the 2003 season finale at Texas Motor Speedway. He missed five races last season after breaking his pelvis and right leg in a crash at Kansas Speedway in July.

"It's a great opportunity for me to get back in the car and I'm very excited to be here," Giaffone said. "Everything happened really fast, so I'm still learning with the team, but I know we're going to have a great time.

"The team really wants to grow and win races and we're going to work hard to achieve those goals."

Giaffone was to begin testing today at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the May 30 Indy 500.

"I worked hard in the off-season and I'm probably in the best shape I've ever been in as a driver," Buhl said. "But the mental part of this sport requires 110 percent of your attention 110 percent of the time, and it was just my time to say 'enough.'

"It was not an easy decision. I may leave some unfinished business at the Brickyard but this is the right decision for everyone -- my family, my team and me. I'm healthy, happy and walking away on my own terms."

Buhl won two IRL races in 78 career starts. He made sight starts in the Indianapolis 500 and posted a career-best sixth-place finish in the 1999 race while driving for A.J. Foyt.

Junqueira turned in the quickest lap around the 1.969-mile road course at 58.65 seconds while Carpentier's top lap was 58.69. Sebastien Bourdais (Newman/Haas) and Las Vegas resident Paul Tracy (Forsythe) also turned in sub-59-second laps. PKV Racing's Jimmy Vasser of Las Vegas was sixth fastest at 59.04 while fellow Las Vegan Alex Tagliani (Rocketsports Racing) was ninth fastest at 59.59.40.

The Champ Car World Series next races in Monterrey, Mexico on May 23.