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IRL: Cheever Ready for High Speed, Altitude at Pikes Peak

27 June 1999

Fountain, Colorado - Eddie Cheever, Jr. qualified his #51 The Children's Beverage Group/Team Cheever Dallara/Goodyear/Infiniti eleventh at today's Pep Boys Indy Racing League qualifier at Pikes Peak International Raceway. Cheever lapped the 1-mile tri-oval in 20.787 seconds at an average speed of 173.185 m.p.h.

Currently ranked fifth in the Pep Boys Indy Racing League Points Drive, just eight points shy of third place, Eddie Cheever, will start the 200-mile, 200-lap Radisson 200 Indy Car race from the 6th row. The Radisson 200 will air live on FOX Sports Net at 2pm (EDT) on Sunday, June 27th.

Eddie Cheever, Jr. #51 The Children's Beverage Group
Dallara/Goodyear/Infiniti

On Qualifying

"We did our finest lap of the weekend. When we were testing here last weekend we were running about two-tenths faster, so I thought we could have done better today. We starting from the eleventh spot, but we are 300ths of a second from the front."

On the weekend

"We were here last week testing so we arrived thinking we had already found the perfect set up. Unfortunately, it is now 30 degrees hotter than a week ago and so we've lost most the weekend chasing ourselves. We've gone back to an earlier setup and have made up the time. We're close now but not quite there. We'll have it by tomorrow."

Expectations for tomorrow's race

"This is an incredibly tough track. It is going to come down to tires and air in my opinion. These long edged corners beat the heck of the tires. I also think a lot of people out there do not realize how hard the rarified air is going to be on the equipment and the drivers over the 200-laps. In the end, the guy who is fastest and most consistent will win tomorrow."

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