Start your engines!
Play RPM.ESPN Stock Car Challenge!
Win a Honda S2000!
Play The CART Challenge powered by Honda!
|
|
Sunday, July 8
Cheever wins first IRL race at Kansas
Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Through the first half of the Indy
Racing League season, Eddie Cheever Jr.'s praise for his Infiniti
engine was drowned out by the roar of Oldsmobiles propelling other
drivers to victory.
On Sunday, Cheever finally got the last word.
|  | | Eddie Cheever Jr., bottom, passed Sam Hornish Jr., top, on lap 198 to win the Ameristar Casino Indy 200. |
"I had a secret weapon behind me today," said Cheever, who
passed Sam Hornish Jr. with slightly more than two laps to go for
his first victory of the season in the inaugural Ameristar Casino
Indy 200 at the new Kansas Speedway. "The Infiniti engine is
finally where we want it to be. We've worked hard for the past
three years."
Cheever also won at Pikes Peak last year with an
Infiniti-powered car, but a succession of crashes this season had
kept him out of Victory Lane and out of the top 10 in the points
standings.
The 1998 Indianapolis 500 winner owns his own car and receives
backing from Infiniti but is racing without a major sponsor -- "a
situation that has to change," he said.
"We've never been right there at the end," said Cheever, whose
fifth IRL victory prevented series champion Buddy Lazier from
becoming only the second driver to win three consecutive events on
the circuit. "We could have won Texas. We could have won
Richmond."
It was the third straight second-place finish for Hornish, the
IRL points leader. He took the lead from Cheever on the 191st of
200 laps on the 1½-mile oval, but Cheever regained it approaching
the fourth turn on the 198th. His .1976 of a second margin of
victory was the fifth-closest in IRL history.
"It was side-by-side racing -- he gave me room, I gave him
room," said Hornish, who leads Lazier by 60 points in the
standings. "I like racing with guys like Eddie, because you know
they're not going to do something to put you into the wall."
Cheever said the same of Hornish, who has two wins and six
top-five finishes this season.
"Sam could give etiquette lessons to 90 percent of the drivers
out there," Cheever said.
Donnie Beechler was third, followed by Felipe Giaffone, Lazier,
Airton Dare, Eliseo Salazar, Shigeaki Hattori, Billy Boat and Robby
McGehee.
McGehee was racing for the first time since he broke his left
leg, cracked a rib and got a concussion in a crash June 9 at Texas
Motor Speedway.
The only other driver who runs with an Infiniti engine, Robby
Buhl, went out after 54 laps with engine problems.
Polesitter Scott Sharp was running second but catching Cheever
when he spun into the wall in turn 4 on the 138th lap. It was the
second crash of the season after a pole start for Sharp, who was
No. 1 at the Indianapolis 500 but wrecked on the first lap.
"There were a lot of laps left. I figured I'd be able to get
Eddie somewhere," Sharp said. "All of a sudden, I felt a little
wobble in the back of the car. The rear end just snapped around.
Something must have broken."
The caution after Sharp's crash allowed Hornish to make up for a
disastrous stall in the pits in the 107th lap.
Hornish dropped to 11th, but made a fast pit stop under caution
and was second behind Cheever when racing resumed in the 148th lap.
Jeret Schroeder crashed on the 149th, precipitating another
caution, but neither Cheever nor Hornish pitted.
Despite continued hot weather in Kansas City, the sold-out,
75,000-seat speedway was nearly full for the IRL race. The
temperature was 93 degrees at the noon CDT start with a track
temperature of 127.
 Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
|
|
|
|
