IRL: Cheever ready to batlle at Las Vegas
16 September 1999
On the Championship Hunt"As far as we are concerned, we are absolutely in the hunt.... The whole bunch of us are so close, it's almost ridiculous. We are completely focused on winning races... if not for the Championship, then, for a Top Three finish for the season. Mathematically, and with a little bit of luck and a lot of team work, our goals are attainable."
On the Infiniti Engine
"We made the decision to partner with Infiniti earlier this year for many long term as well as short term reasons. In the short term, we want to win races for ourselves as well as our new engine partner. In the long term, we plan to be well ahead of others when the 3.5-liter era hits next year. We are currently testing pieces on the engine that should put us ahead of next year's learning curve by some of the other teams."
On the track
"This is a very tough track. When you come to a place like Las Vegas, that has less banking and a slick surface, it switches everyone's focus to issues of handling. Unlike other tracks we run on, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with the sun and the sand, quickly degenerates into the kind of conditions I thrive on.... slippery and difficult."
On the race
"It should be a great race. Our fields are tighter than ever; the hunt for the Championship and the Top 3 slots is unbearably close and our tire war is about to crescendo at one of the toughest tire tracks we race on. Tires are extremely important here and you can go through them quickly. Since there is less banking, the demand on the tires is much greater. It's really more of an issue of "tire fatigue" than "tire wear". Because of this, we've done a lot of testing here with Goodyear (Team Cheever's most recent test was September 7th & 8th). Our focus this weekend will be maximizing whatever grip is available in our tires and getting our race and pit strategies to the point of flawlessness."
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