Cheever

NAZARETH, Pa. -- The IRL's debut at Nazareth Speedway is supposed to be a race between points leader Sam Hornish Jr. and the cars owned by Roger Penske.

Hold on, says Eddie Cheever.

"The winner will be the one who doesn't get involved in accidents," Cheever, the former Indianapolis 500 champion, says of Sunday's Firestone Indy 225.

True, broken race cars were the order of business during the 15 years CART raced on the narrow, 1-mile oval former track owner Penske built in the Lehigh Valley. But there are many ways to lose, including one almost as most painful to drivers as an accident.

Cheever remembers the despair he felt in 1995.

"I was leading when I ran out of fuel with a lap and a half to go," he recalled. "It would have been a great victory. I was driving for A.J. Foyt, and at that time he was on a long streak of winless races."

Both recovered quite well, but Cheever still has trouble forgetting that spring day when an apparent victory became a fifth-place finish. He moved on to the fledgling IRL the next season, but has been waiting seven years for another shot at Nazareth.

"Have you ever gone crazy about all the single socks you have stored away in a drawer at home?" he asked. "Winning at Nazareth would be like finding one of those lost socks."

Helio Castroneves doesn't believe all the success Penske's drivers have had in Nazareth will mean much Sunday.

"We raced at Nazareth in the CART cars, and the IRL cars are so different," Castroneves said.

But six victories on the picturesque track are difficult to ignore even though the Reading-based team is in its first season as a full-time IRL competitor. And Castroneves gave the team good reason to believe it will contend by turning the fastest lap in testing earlier this month.

Castroneves, who will defend his Indianapolis 500 championship next month, got around the track at 172.824 mph. Teammate Gil de Ferran also was among the faster cars in testing at Nazareth, where two years ago he gave Penske perhaps the most emotional of his 111 victories.

The team had been through two winless seasons when de Ferran took the Bosch Grand Prix, rewarding Penske with his 100th open-wheel victory.

"I'm excited about being back at Nazareth," de Ferran said. "It holds a special place for me because I got my first win for Team Penske."

De Ferran parlayed that into the first of consecutive CART championships, and he's second in points to IRL champion Hornish after the first three races this season. Castroneves is third in the standings.

Like many IRL drivers, Hornish has raced at Nazareth but considers his experience in a developmental series of little practical use.

"The cars are so much different from the Toyota Atlantics," he said. "You're pretty much flat out all away around the track. With these cars, you have to let off a little bit and brake a little bit going into Turn 3 and really set the car."