INDY RACING: Infiniti powered Cheever third in opening practice at Chicago
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
August September 1, 2001Joliet, Ill. - Eddie Cheever Jr. posted the third fastest time (24.8298 seconds) during opening practice for Sunday's inaugural Indy Racing event at Chicagoland Speedway, the Delphi Indy 300.
Cheever, who captured the first victory for the new Infiniti Indy 35A engine at Kansas City in July, toured the 1.5-mile oval at a top speed of 220.380 mph in his #51 Cheever Indy Racing Infiniti. The 1998 Indianapolis 500 Champion was one of only three drivers to exceed 220 mph as Indy Racing made its official debut at the suburban Chicago circuit.
ABC Sports will broadcast the penultimate round of the 2001 Indy Racing Northern Light Series live at 3:00pm Central time on September 2.
Eddie Cheever Jr. (on Friday practice): "The track is very fast and very smooth. ISC has done a great job and we're just happy to be here. We worked on our qualifying setup this morning and tried a few things that didn't work. We need to find a way to take more drag out of the car. The track has a tremendous amount of grip. There is actually more grip here than we had in Kansas. You might see three abreast, which is pretty awkward if you're the guy on the outside.
We did a lot of full tank running this afternoon and figured out a few things. We were almost as fast on full tanks as we were this morning with qualifying fuel. The wind is making the gearing very difficult. If you get the gears wrong and you have the wind in your face, you'll lose a lot of time."
Text provided by Ashleigh Higgins
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