Lazier in at Menard (again).

Jaques Lazier's apparently love/hate relationship with John Menard is back on again for the time being after the Colorado-based native was re-hired by Menard in place of the injured Vitor Meira for this weekend's Firestone Indy 225.

Despite being the team's original choice of driver for the 2003 season, Lazier left the team in somewhat acrimonious circumstances after the Indianapolis 500 to be replaced by Meira.

Meira suffered a fracture to his right wrist in a crash during practice last week at Kentucky Speedway.

Lazier drove for Menard from August 2001 through the 87th Indianapolis 500 on May 25th, 2003. He competed in the final three races of the 2001 season with the team and scored his only career victory at Chicagoland. He then drove the first four races with the team in 2002 before he suffered a fractured back in a two-car accident with Tomas Scheckter at the 2002 Nazareth race. He missed the remainder of the season.

Lazier returned to action for the first four races of 2003 with Team Menard before he and the team parted ways after Indianapolis. He drove in four other races in 2003 with A.J. Foyt Racing. Lazier's best performance this season was at Phoenix, driving for Menard when he started 12th and finished sixth.

"I'd like to thank John (Menard) and Johns Manville for this opportunity to drive," Lazier said. "I want to wish Vitor a quick recovery. I'm very excited about going into this weekend. I think that the overall program from Team Menard and Chevrolet has dramatically increased since the last time I ran with them in the Indianapolis 500. Their engineering staff is as strong as ever.

"Obviously the Chevy Gen IV is at the top of its game right now. I think we know we have a really good package, and we need to go in there and do what we have unfortunately struggled to do this year, have consistent races and be able to finish at the end of the race."