Cheever

1. Infiniti pours on the power with new 35A Engine
This is the year that the Infiniti program finally showed its true heritage. Nissan decided to go head-to-head with General Motors, the largest car manufacturer in the world, and after a very slow, chaotic start it showed that when Nissan started demanding more from its engineers, it could deliver the best IRL engine. The addition of Formula One engine guru Bernard Dudot as motorsports program manager further strengthened the effort. The new Infiniti Indy 35A quickly evolved into a winner with our victory at Kansas.

2. Toyota entering the IRL
Like all the teams and companies involved in the Indy Racing League, I saw the logic and inevitability of Tony George's vision for open-wheel oval racing in the States. The arrival of a large engine manufacturer like Toyota was inevitable and just another piece of the rebuilding of American oval racing. CART has no focus, no viable TV package, and most significantly, no Indianapolis 500. I often wondered how any CFO involved in CART could look his or her board in the eye and tell them they were getting "good value" for their investment.

3. New venues
The friendly relationship between the IRL and NASCAR is based on good, old-fashioned, sound business judgment. Over the past decade, hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in modern, world-class, fan-friendly oval tracks. In order for these tracks to be successful, they need to host more than one NASCAR race a year. At the end of the day, the addition of IRL events will improve the bottom line of these publicly-traded companies, and the stockholders will gain. All of the new venues we went to this year were extremely successful with the fans and, more importantly, profitable for the promoters. The IRL has a lot of work to do in the future and there will of course be problems to be solved, but our sails are full of the strong breeze of success.

4. Penske returns to the Indianapolis 500
Italy and Formula One have Ferrari, America and the Indianapolis 500 have Penske. I loved competing against his team at Indy, and every lap I have run since our disappointing 2001 Indy 500 I have thought about what we are going to have to do to beat Penske next year. I really did feel the void of not having Team Penske race with us after Indy.

5. Midwest success
Of all the plans the IRL has put in place (and there have been quite a few!), the 2001 midwest schedule was brilliant not only in concept, but also in the manner in which it was implemented. Sell-out crowds in Kansas City, Nashville and Chicago confirmed that open-wheel racing needed to return to its Midwestern roots. With the 2002 IRL schedule at 15 races, we can now focus on developing these events into an integral part of the communities that we race in, like the Indy 500 is to Indianapolis in the month of May.

6. Sam Hornish Jr.
A young man with focus, talent and a boat-load of youthful exuberance. I'll race with him anytime, anywhere. A deserving champion.

7. Michigan and California added to the 2002 schedule
Michigan Speedway has enormous potential for growth, but it will take some time because CART has driven that circuit into the ground, where open-wheel racing is concerned. As for California, I am euphoric the IRL will finally be racing on the west coast. The race at California Speedway is a further extension of our excellent relationship with NASCAR and ISC.

8. Four wins for Buddy Lazier
A tough, tenacious bulldog on the track, you can never count out Buddy Lazier. After a slow start to his season, the defending series champion stormed back to claim four wins in five races and give Sam Hornish Jr. something to worry about.

9. Little Al's win at St. Louis
With all due respect to the Galles team, if it had not been for Al Unser Jr., they would not have even come close to the top 10, much less a win. Al used his experience to predict how the changing track conditions were going to affect his car's handling, and he kicked all of our butts at Gateway. At the start of the race, I bet Big Al $50 his son was going to win. He still hasn't paid me.

10. Jaques Lazier to Team Menard
It's always hard to change drivers in the middle of the season and Team Menard did a great job in Chicago. Another seven laps and they would have finished second though!