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Friday, July 6
Cheever: Crossing the line
By Eddie Cheever Jr.
Special to ESPN.com
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Richmond was a really exciting race. Everybody had a different opinion on what the pace was going to be. My chief mechanic, Owen Snyder, the Infiniti engineers and I sat down before the race and discussed what we thought was going to happen, and it turned out to be a race that we called perfectly.
The car got progressively faster all through the race. At the end, when I was behind Eliseo Salazar, Buddy Lazier was losing 20-30 yards every time we went through Turns 3 and 4, so I didn't really think he was going to be much of a problem. We were about to take the lead, and the car was great.
In Richmond, like in Pikes Peak, there were two lines. When I came out of Turn 2, Salazar was forced to go into the high line, and I took the bottom line. I kept the bottom line all the way down the backstraight, and had that line going into Turn 3. He had the top line.
Salazar either didn't see me, or he chose to think I was going to back off and allow him to swap from the high line to the low line. After having been moved around by Greg Ray and Scott Sharp to the point where they almost ran me off the road in Texas, I had obviously made the decision going into Richmond that I was going to stick to the rules and follow the new IRL "etiquette."
In hindsight, I should have waited to make a move, but I was listening very attentively to what the IRL had told us they were going to do and what the new ethics were going to be, and I trusted that. In Pikes Peak, it was made very clear to all the drivers that once you were racing with somebody and you chose a line, you had to stick to that line.
I enjoy racing against Salazar. I've been racing against him for a long time. I'm looking forward to racing against him in the future. But I had positioned my car where it was supposed to be. In my mind, there was no doubt whatsoever that Salazar was going to hold his line.
I have no idea what the IRL's position is regarding the incident at Richmond. We will probably learn more about that at the drivers' meeting in Kansas. After all the confusion following Texas, I think I'm wise to just sit and listen to what they have to say before I say anything.
As for this weekend, I'm glad we're going to Kansas City. It's a brand-new circuit we're all looking forward to. We've become pretty proficient at running on these 1.5-mile ovals, so it will be interesting to see how everybody settles into a new speedway.
The Indy Racing League has a very controversial and exciting season going on, and there is a lot of emotion in the air. Everybody in Kansas is going to get one hell of a show.
IRL driver Eddie Cheever Jr. owns and drives the No. 51 Cheever Indy Racing Infiniti car. He will be providing a diary to ESPN.com throughout the season. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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