BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Red Bull Cheever Indy Racing has been "Team Turmoil" in the Indy Racing League this season, especially since last week's race at Nashville Superspeedway.

That's when rookie Tomas Scheckter tried to pass his boss, Eddie Cheever, and the result was Scheckter's sixth crash in 10 races.

	Tomas Scheckter, right, hasn't spoken with Eddie Cheever, left, since wrecking in Nashville.

Cheever decided to bring in another young driver, former Formula Atlantics champion Buddy Rice, to make it a three-car effort for Sunday's Michigan Indy 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

Scheckter is still on the team but had his crew moved to work with Rice this weekend. Cheever brought in members of Greg Beck's IRL operation to work with Scheckter, who has displayed flashes of brilliance interrupted by crashes.

Earlier this week, Scheckter was convinced he would be fired by Cheever after his latest incident. According to Scheckter, he has yet to meet face-to-face with his boss.

When all three of Cheever's drivers were brought into the press room after setting the fastest laps of the day, the newcomer -- Rice -- was between Scheckter and Cheever. When asked if the teammates were going to work out their problems and have dinner Friday night, Cheever responded, "I have dinner every night."

Despite sweeping the top-three positions on the speed list, there was a palpable tension between Scheckter and Cheever. When Scheckter was the first to arrive in the press room, he told reporters, "Now, maybe Eddie will finally talk to me for the first time all week."

That didn't happen.

Instead, Rice's top lap of 221.833 miles per hour as he prepares for his first IRL race was nearly overshadowed by the Scheckter saga. Scheckter was second at 221.292 mph, followed by Cheever's 221.233 mph. All three were in Dallara/Infiniti racers.

Felipe Giaffone was fourth at 220.730 mph in a G Force/Chevrolet and two-time defending Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves was fifth at 220.283 mph in a Dallara/Chevrolet.

Although Indy car racing has been held at the two-mile Michigan International Speedway since 1968, this is the first time the IRL has competed at the oval. CART raced here from 1979-2001.

With all three drivers using the fast Infiniti engine, they have placed themselves in contention for the pole in qualifying Saturday at 11 a.m. EDT.

Although Cheever did not speak directly to Scheckter, he did deliver a message to him through the media.

"All he needs to do is very simple -- stop crashing," Cheever said. "It's not complicated. You don't have to tell him to go fast, he just has to stop crashing because all those crashes have decimated the team this year."

Scheckter has tremendous talent, as evidenced by leading 85 laps in the 200-lap Indianapolis 500. But like five other events this season, Scheckter's race ended with a crash.

Cheever admitted that he may be back to "square one" with Scheckter but isn't ready to give up on the 21-year-old driver from South Africa.

But tension remains. The drivers were asked if they would like to have a three-wide start rather than the normal two-wide and Cheever said, "I would love to see all three of our cars in the first row."

Scheckter responded, "I'd like to see it, but it would depend on how many come out of the first corner."

"With us, you never really know," Cheever quipped.

That left Rice is the middle of the squabble between the veteran owner-driver and the rookie protege.

"I'm here for the weekend and hopefully, we can go from there," Rice said. "Any opportunity you get right now is very important. There are limited seats in both CART and the IRL. They are showing that and I have to be open to anything right now. I tested with (owners Bobby) Rahal and I tested with (Chip) Ganassi and with Eddie Cheever in the IRL.

"I've had two NASCAR Busch teams earlier in the year ask me if I wanted to drive a Busch car, but I really want to drive in an open-wheel car, whether it's on the streets or on the ovals."

The decision to take Scheckter's crew and move them over to Rice's team wasn't made until two days ago.

"I wouldn't say we are testing continuity, but we are making some changes," said chief mechanic Owen Snyder, who now is working with Rice. "That was the point of what we are doing with this race, to make some changes. Speed isn't the issue. Tomas could run for just about anybody in here and he would be up front. We are looking at many more things other than that.

"So far, we have added a driver and the Red Bull team is 1-2-3 here at Michigan. The chances we made were for a variety of reasons. It wasn't to penalize anybody."

Snyder said the team continues to support Scheckter, even though he is the reason why many of them have had to work long, hard hours repairing his crashed race cars this season.

"If we were crashing and we weren't up front, it would be a different story," Snyder said. "He is up front when he is crashing.

"He is blindingly fast and is running up front. But Eddie is Eddie, he is the owner and is either going to talk to him as an owner or as a competitor. That's a tough position to be in at the race track."

Cheever has criticized Scheckter for crashing so many cars this year but made the decisions without consulting the young driver. He has left that task up to team general manager Dick Caron.

The team is hoping the latest reassignment will send a message to Scheckter and help him improve and keep him out of the wall.

"The fastest guy doesn't always win the race and that is the point we keep trying to make," Snyder said. "Almost every race, he puts in the quickest lap of the race and that kind of sends a message to us, does he realize the fastest guy doesn't always win the race. He needs to throttle back a little bit to win the race.

"First, finish it and then see if you win it. I bet the two go hand in hand. That's how Rick Mears became a four-time Indianapolis 500 champion."

Snyder has great faith that Scheckter will eventually become an outstanding driver who will win races. He also believes Cheever is fortunate to have Beck's team available to help work with Scheckter for this race.

Rice's deal is for just one race, but Cheever tested the driver for the second seat on his team during the offseason. According to sources, Cheever wanted to hire Rice, but Tom Walkinshaw, who is involved with the team with the Infiniti engine project, pushed for Scheckter to get the ride.

"He was one of the drivers we were looking at," Cheever admitted. "There is no science in how you pick somebody. Everybody acts like they know what they are doing. We haven't quite got the right mix yet with Tomas and we will keep mixing until we get the right mix.

"We've done a good job getting everybody the same equipment and I hope we will be in good shape for the race. I keep trying to make changes on Tomas' car, crew and mechanics to find the right chemistry so that he will win races. Maybe this will have a calming effect on him."

Cheever said the team is committed to Scheckter through the 2003 season. He admitted that under normal circumstances, teams would fire a driver after having so many crashes.

"This has become a season from hell," Cheever said. "We have squandered so many opportunities, we have crashed so many cars and the team needs to be remotivated. They are tired of repairing cars. Having three cars here is a very big responsibility and to put him with Greg Beck may give Scheckter a different perspective."

Cheever's season has been costly because he does not have insurance for his cars. The premium per race is $85,000, but Cheever was offered a season-long deal where $300,000 would have protected his equipment for the season. Cheever turned that down, so the team has had to absorb the cost or repairing and replacing equipment.

"It has been quite costly," Cheever said. "Tomas has a lot of talent, a lot of determination. He needs to improve his ability of how a team functions. It's not a video game, you don't crash a car and then hit the reset button and another car turns up.

"We will keep on making changes until we get it right. I'm eternally optimistic that we will."