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Friday, July 6
Cheever, Buhl show off in Kansas City
Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Eddie Cheever Jr. keeps breaking race
cars, and his crew keeps making new ones.
On Friday, in practice for the Ameristar Casinos Indy 200 at the
new Kansas Speedway, Cheever treated a small crowd sweltering in
95-degree heat to a blazing test drive.
| |  | | | Cheever Jr. |
| |  | | | Buhl |
"My team has destroyed three cars in five races," said the
Indy Racing League owner-driver, who turned in a best speed of
216.973 mph on the 1½-mile tri-oval. "The car I'm running here,
they finished last night at two o'clock in the morning.
"The mechanics are really doing a hell of a job."
Cheever is 14th in the points standings after crashing with 37
laps to go in last week's Sun Trust Indy Challenge at Richmond
International Raceway.
Cheever and Robbie Buhl, the only drivers who use Infiniti
engines, were almost 2 mph faster than their closest competitors
Friday. Buhl had a best lap of 216.63 mph, with Mark Dismore's
Oldsmobile-powered Dallara third-fastest at 214.935 mph.
"I know I sound like an advertisement for the Infiniti
engine," Cheever said. "But we just came from a very slow track,
where they ran incredibly well, and now we're on a fast track and
they're almost two miles an hour faster than the competition. I
don't expect that to hold up through qualifying, though."
Drivers Greg Ray and Robby McGehee received medical clearances
on Friday to compete in the race.
McGehee missed three races after breaking his left leg, cracking
a rib and sustaining a concussion in a crash June 29 in the Casino
Magic 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Ray suffered back spasms after
crashing in practice for the Sun Trust.
Ray, whose absence dropped him from ninth to 11th in the
standings, said he was "not at all 100 percent but feeling good.
"I'm very happy to be back in the car since I was so
disappointed about Richmond," he said. "I'm feeling relaxed about
driving, which is a good thing. You know, even at 80 percent, I'm
in pretty good shape."
Ray was eighth-fastest at 213.426 mph. McGehee was 21st out of
23 drivers, with a top speed of 207.723 mph, and admitted he was
still rebuilding his confidence.
"It's always like that for drivers the first day they're coming
back after a big crash," he said. "Physically, my leg is fine."
Sunday's 200-lap, 300-mile race will go on without the Heritage
Motorsports team, which announced Friday that it is withdrawing
from IRL competition until Aug. 26. The team will concentrate on
testing and development in the meantime but plans to compete in the
last three races of the season, co-owner Jim Rathmann Jr. said.
"This team has a lot of potential for the future, and we need
to focus on making ourselves better," Rathmann said. "Because we
only formed this team in January, we haven't had the time,
personnel or equipment to test properly, and it has hurt us in the
past few races."
Jeff Ward drove in the first seven races of the season for
Heritage Motorsports, with four top-10 finishes. His best finish
was fifth at Homestead-Miami Speedway on April 8.
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