Start your engines!
Play RPM.ESPN Stock Car Challenge!
Win a Honda S2000!
Play The CART Challenge powered by Honda!
|
|
Friday, August 31
Cheever: Racing is a team sport
By Eddie Cheever Jr.
Special to ESPN.com
| |  | | | Cheever |
When I was 13, I devoted my life to driving race cars. I had absolutely no desire to own a team. I went on to make a career and a life out of driving cars, moving from one team to another.
However, when we started Team Cheever in 1997, all of that changed dramatically. I couldn't move on to greener pastures at the end of a season or when my contract was over. I had the responsibility of ensuring the team had advanced and improved by the time the next season started.
Although being both an owner and a driver is a lot more demanding and time-consuming, I am now finally able to bring together the sort of people that I like to work with. Is there an advantage to being an owner/driver? Absolutely. I know every driver who's out there in greater detail than any other owner or team manager or engineer. I have worked with mechanics my whole life, and I can tell a good mechanic from a mechanic who isn't as talented.
At the end of the day, the thing that gives me the most professional pleasure is driving race cars. When I'm in the car, I consider myself more as the senior team member than the team owner. Racing is definitely a team sport. As much as every driver would like to think everything revolves around him or her, or the crew chief or team manager would like to think it revolves around him, it really doesn't. If one of those elements is missing, the team is going to fail.
As team owner, I am like an air traffic controller. I decide who goes where and why they do it, and then I just try to get out of everybody's way. Racing attracts incredibly egotistical people -- mostly, but not restricted to, drivers -- who believe the whole universe revolves around them because of their abilities. Getting a group of people like that to work together is very challenging, but when it works, there are very few things that team cannot accomplish.
But racing is no longer just about a team going out and winning races. There are corporate partnerships that have to be developed and maintained. We spend a good percentage of our time making sure that our partners get what they need out of racing. The only problem is I need 48-hour days. Twenty-four hours is just not quite enough.
I can understand now why so many NASCAR drivers have either sold their team or taken on managing partners. This season, I found myself spending more time in meetings and less time in training. We've made some great progress with the team and the Infiniti engine, but it has also been a season of lost opportunities. However, Cheever Indy Racing has been up against a lot of adversity, and we've always found a way to position ourselves as one of the teams to beat.
My primary goal in the next few months is to reorganize my life so I can divide my time between the two things that I do best: ensuring our cars are fast and ready to win, and capitalizing on the opportunities that inevitably present themselves when you have great equipment and team members who are only satisfied when they win.
IRL driver Eddie Cheever Jr. owns and drives the No. 51 Cheever Indy Racing Infiniti car. He will be providing a diary to ESPN.com throughout the season. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
|
|
|
|
