Athletes - Jaques Lazier

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	Athletes - Jaques Lazier

Jaques Lazier is an Indy Racing League driver born January 25, 1971 in Denver, Colorado and is the younger brother of 1996 Indianapolis 500 champion Buddy Lazier and son of former Indy racer Bob Lazier.

The younger Lazier ran in U.S. Formula Ford competition from 1989 to 1997, and made his IRL debut in 1999. He was unsuccessful his first couple starts, failing to qualify for races at both the Phoenix International Raceway and at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He moved to the new Truscelli Team Racing having disbanded his own team in 2000, and finished 13th in his first '500.

Things continued to improve and following runs with TeamXtreme and Sam Schmidt Motorsports, he got his best chance with John Menard to replace the departed Greg Ray. He won his second start at the Chicagoland Speedway. He drove for Menard until midway of the 2003 season when his place was taken by the up-and-coming Brazilian driver Vitor Meira. Despite driving a couple races for A.J. Foyt funds failed to materialize for the remainder of the season and he was left on the sidelines.

He drove a few races for Pat Patrick in 2004 when Al Unser Jr. retired and posted several good results, but again was ride less entering 2005. He struck a deal with the new Playa del Racing team to contest the Indy 500 but their funds were good only for that race. When veteran owner Chip Ganassi fired under-performing British driver Darren Manning, he called on Lazier to replace him. The team wasn't as strong in previous seasons when it had won four consecutive CART titles, nor when they won the 2003 IRL title with Scott Dixon. Lazier never put up a great result and unfortunately will be remembered for an incident with rising star and fan favorite Danica Patrick the final race at California Speedway. The two touched and set off an accident, whereupon some reports claimed Patrick "gave Lazier a love tap". Bobby Rahal's team put out a press release saying Patrick had only told Lazier to mind his business in the future. Lazier is currently unemployed for 2006.

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