Especially with the backdrop of Fernandomania, Buddy Lazier has basically become the forgotten champion this week in the lead up to the Indianapolis 500.

And it’s not hard to understand the lack of media attention for the 1996 winner and 2000 Indy Racing League champion considering the presence of Formula 1 superstar Fernando Alonso, Lazier’s own late arrival to practice and his lackluster speed compared to the rest of the field.

That's consistently been the story over the past five years for the 49-year-old, who has either been the 33rd or 34th entrant in the Indianapolis 500. For all intents and purposes, the former CART and SCCA road racer has served as a field filler, but he has greater ambitions than simply showing up.

But first, Lazier needs to show up on time. And that requires resources.

"The unfortunate thing is that we were planning to start on Thursday but didn't even turn our first lap until Friday," Lazier said of his overdue first timed practice lap. "But even if we could ideally start on Monday like everyone else, this deal came together so last minute that it couldn’t be more competitive, but this is definitely not something we want to do every year.

"We need to build our effort. We've made some serious efforts this year to build for next year. We're already putting together a budget for next season, and that includes a backup car. I think we're going to step up next year, to a certain degree.

"I like the challenge a driver experiences here. But when you start on Friday, you have 30 laps before qualifying -- you're not aiming for the front row but simply trying to get the car in the show."

Even approaching his 50s, Lazier wants one more opportunity to remind the motorsports community that he’s a champion.

"It’s lost every once in a while that I also won the IndyCar championship in 2000, and I really should have won the 500 that year, too," Lazier said. "Montoya beat me by a tick. We were quicker, but they were beating us in the pits."

To his point, Lazier set the fastest lap of the race on lap 198, but Montoya was too far ahead and held on for his first victory in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. Lazier wants one more chance to chase down the giants of open-wheel racing.

Lazier Racing is currently operated by team manager Mitch Davis and co-owned by Lazier’s father, Bob, the 1981 CART Rookie of the Year. The Lazier family makes their living operating ski trails in Colorado, and they're searching for a way to find the funding needed to build a full-time effort.

Lazier readily admits that none of their past Indy 500 efforts has gone according to plan, but they’re not giving up.

"It was all very last minute," Lazier said. "We work in the Colorado ski industry and our season ends in April, and then we go to work in May. The Great Recession really hit us hard, but we're in much better shape now, so now our focus is on building this race team.

"I don't intend to be racing a hell of a lot longer, but I'd like to come back here and do it the right way one more time -- and to me, that means having a chance to set a fast time and race for the win. But beyond that, that means building a full-time effort. We know what it takes to be champions. We know what it takes to build an exceptional operation. It's only a matter of time."

Time and money.

"It’s always funding," Lazier said. "Funding the engineering and manufacturing is always the hard part. Breaking into the top-five, technically, isn't that hard. Having the funding to find that last little bit is. We know a lot of folks in the petroleum industry and they've experienced challenges in their business model, so the key is to have business partners so that you can compete consistently year in and year out."

He believes that consistent access to a revenue source that remains in place is what separates good teams from the elite ones. He doesn’t expect to replace Roger Penske or Chip Ganassi but believes he has the mindset to race with them at Indianapolis based on his 25 years of racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

For now, that’s where Lazier wants to apply the resources he has.

"There's nothing that beats the Indy 500, and if you're going to run in just one race to get by, this is the one in which to do it," Lazier said. "Economically. But yes, the next big step is to go back full time. But to do that, we need to show up in May and be a big deal. We're assembling now what it will take to be a full-time effort.

"We just need time."

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