rpm.espn.com: Robbie Buhl

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Tuesday, December 4

Robbie Buhl
ESPN.com

Team: Team Purex Dreyer-Reinbold Racing
Nationality: United States

STATS

Year
Rank
Wins
Poles
Top 5
Top 10
Money
Best finish

2001 12 0 0 3 5 $873,375 3rd, Twice

Career 2 0 11 23 $3,353,978 1st, Twice

Robbie Buhl
Buhl

2001 Recap
The Good: Robbie Buhl and Team Purex's secret weapon is their excellent fuel mileage program. It bit them last season, but they are consistently one of the last to pit at every race. In past years, personnel changes also affected the team's performance, but this season, it looks as if most of team team will remain intact.

Buhl came on as a gang-buster late in the season, leading in each of the final four races of the season. Watch out if he can carry momentum into 2002.

Season Highlight: In the season finale at Texas, Buhl was on the short end of the stick and was third in the closest 1-2-3 finish in IRL history with Sam Hornish Jr. and Scott Sharp. It still equalled his best finish of the season and was a positive way to enter the winter.

The Bad: His team has no teammate to share information acquisition issues and that sometimes has retarded the team's advancement from second tier to one of the IRL's elite.

Season Lowlight: Buhl suffered a July swoon, qualifying admirably, but suffering mechanical setbacks in the races at Kansas Speedway and Nashville Superspeedway, which knocked him out early in both affairs.

Key Stat: Buhl led at least 30 laps in each of the final three races of 2001. In the previous 10 races, he led the pack for only a total of five laps.

2002 Outlook
What needs to be done: The renewal of Purex significantly helps the team's stability and will go a long way towards ending some of the distractions that have heretofore Buhl's attention.

Prediction: Buhl's experience with the Nissan engine will play a big role in his 2002 success. The Infiniti 35A could very well be the early leader in the '02 engine clubhouse. Robbie needs to build upon some of the late-season advances his team enjoyed in 2001.

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