AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Eddie Cheever was about as angry as he'd ever been in a race car.

Tomas Scheckter, the youngster whom Cheever had chosen to race his second team car, had just crashed into his boss on the third lap of the season-opening race in Homestead, Fla.

	Tomas Schecker, right, got a little too close for comfort with boss Eddie Cheever, left, in the season-opener.

While Cheever wound up against a wall, furious and done for the day, Scheckter, a South African raised on road racing, wound up an impressive sixth in his debut in the all-oval IRL series.

"My first reaction as a race car driver was to jump out of the car and use the Foyt technique of driver development -- grab him and pound some sense into him," Cheever said, referring to the often fiery A.J. Foyt.

"But that approach never had a long-lasting effect on me. Instead, we spent two days after the race, some of which were awkward, going through the differences between road racing and oval racing with Tomas."

The next test for the 21-year-old son of former Formula One champion Jody Scheckter comes Sunday in the Copper World 200 at Phoenix International Raceway.

It will be only his second race on an oval, but Scheckter is hardly daunted.

"I learned a valuable lesson in Miami that will help me to become a stronger oval racing driver," he said. "I will go to Phoenix with a different approach altogether."

Practice on Friday won't be his first look at the one-mile oval. Scheckter was among the fastest drivers here in the IRL's open test last month.

"If we execute better than we did that first weekend, I see both of our cars being a threat for a podium finish," said Cheever, the Indy Racing League's only owner-driver.

"Tomas is very talented, and we expect nothing less than flawless execution from him every weekend. He needs to understand that the races are won in the last 20 laps, not the first three. I hope that we have successfully drilled this into his head."

Besides spending some time trying to school Scheckter, Cheever's team made some moves designed to get him some experience to fall back on.

Owen Snyder, Cheever's chief mechanic, and Paul Burgess, the team's new technical director acting as Cheever's race engineer, have been switched to Scheckter's car.

"We decided it would be a wise idea to give Tomas the benefit of as much experience as he could," Cheever said. "Owen and Paul have tons of experience and knowledge and will have a good rapport with him."

Sam Hornish Jr., only 22, is someone Scheckter would do well to emulate. Hornish, the defending series champion, picked up right where he left off in 2001, winning in Homestead. He also is the defending winner at Phoenix.

"Our team likes short tracks, where it's about the car setup, about patience and timing passes," Hornish said.

Those are some of the lessons Cheever would like his own young driver to learn.

"Sam Hornish is a tremendous talent and very smart," Cheever said. "That No. 4 is definitely the car to beat right now, no matter where we go."