WASHINGTON - This year's Indianapolis 500 winner, Sam Hornish Jr., didn't offer President Bush any driving tips Tuesday when he met with him in the Oval Office, but he did give the president one of his helmets.

U.S. President Bush, left, with Sam Hornish Jr., right, winner of the 2006 Indianapolis 500, and his wife Crystal Hornish, center, as they stand next to the Borg-Warner Trophy at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House, Tuesday, July 18, 2006.[AP]

"Hopefully, if he decides that he needs to go fast, he'll be properly equipped anyhow," Hornish told reporters outside the West Wing after meeting with Bush for a photo-op.

Hornish of Defiance, Ohio, said the president didn't tell him whether he watched the race. But Hornish said the president told him: "It was a pretty unbelievable finish."

In a dazzling last-second move at the race in May, Hornish whipped around another driver on the final straightaway and won the second-closest Indy ever by .0635 seconds, or a little more than a car length.

"He (Bush) said that it's pretty neat that somebody from a small town in Ohio can grow up and achieve something like winning the Indianapolis 500, which I take as a pretty big compliment," Hornish said.