NorthernLight IRL: Cheever has 'comfortable run' in opening Texas practice
14 October 2000
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
Fort Worth, TX - #51 Excite@Home driver Eddie Cheever Jr. ran comfortably in the top ten during the first day of practice for the final round of the 2000 Indy Racing Northern Light Series championship, the Excite 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Cheever and his #51 Excite@Home crew are currently third in the Indy Racing standings with 217 points, forty-one points behind series leader Buddy Lazier and only three points behind Scott Goodyear.
The Excite 500 will be broadcast at 4:00pm EDT on October 15 on ABC. Qualifying for the Indy Racing season finale will be broadcast at 3:30pm EDT on October 14 on ESPN2..
Eddie Cheever Jr. (on his run for the Indy Racing title): "I'm having a great time. Let Buddy Lazier squirm. I'm a long shot, but it's very possible that I could win. We've had a great season and I'm having a lot of fun. Mathematically, Buddy is the favorite, but I'm sure he is twitchy and nervous and not sleeping. A lot of people are trying to take a shot at him. The higher you go up the tree, the farther you have to fall."
On Friday practice: "I'm glad that we tested here in September because we're running better than we did in June. It appears that we had some bad injectors in the first practice, so we changed them before the second session. We're working hard on freeing up the car, and we found some stuff that we'd like to try tomorrow."
On changes made to the Texas Motor Speedway circuit: "I hate the track now that they've taken the bump out. I liked that bump. I thought that bump made everything a lot more exciting. Now it's just a corner. It's a fast corner, but the bump made you pay attention. I'm not being facetious - it took everybody's game to a higher level. When we were here last year, when you got two abreast going across that bump, you made damn sure everything was pointing the right way."
Text provided by Ashleigh Higgins
Editors Note: To view hundreds of hot photos
and racing art, please visit The Racing Image
Galleries and The
Visions of Speed Art Gallery
.