Northern Light IRL: Infiniti powered Cheever fastest in practice at Texas

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

June 9, 2001

Fort Worth, TX - Eddie Cheever Jr. posted the fastest lap of the weekend during Friday practice for Saturday's fifth round of Indy Racing Northern Light Series competition, the Casino Magic 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Cheever toured the 1.5-mile track at 216.421mph (24.2028 seconds). The 1998 Indianapolis 500 champion, who finished second at the Indy Racing season finale at Texas last year, was the only driver to exceed 216mph.

Eddie Cheever Jr. (on Friday's practice): "We worked on our race set-up today. We started off with a car that was very loose but made some changes that improved the handling. It's very hard to judge what kind of changes there will be in the temperature for the race, though. Guessing the temperature for tomorrow evening will be very difficult."

On the Infiniti Indy 35A: "Our Infiniti engine is performing very well. The 35A is definitely showing signs of a very strong adolescence. We were good in Atlanta, but we had a failure. We had a bad month of May but (Infiniti driver) Robbie Buhl was challenging for the lead of the Indy 500. The Infiniti 35A is definitely a strong engine, but the hardest thing to get in an engine is reliability. Hopefully, this will be a race that we finish, and if we finish, I think we will be running in the top three or four or five."

On teammate Scott Goodyear, who is recovering from a back fracture suffered at the Indianapolis 500: "I really miss having Scott around. I hired a teammate and ended up acquiring a friend. It was very sad to see him go out in the manner that he did at Indy because he is a driver who is always on the pace and has a great record at the Indianapolis 500. It would have been great to have Scott here at Texas. We're very disappointed that he can't be here. He helped us a lot at the first few races this season, and he has a great record at Texas, with two wins."

Text provided by Ashleigh Higgins

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