Rice

	Cheever Jr.

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Owner Eddie Cheever wanted to teach rookie driver Tomas Scheckter a lesson by bringing in Buddy Rice for his first Indy Racing League race. The man who learned perhaps the biggest lesson was Cheever.

After the 21-year-old Scheckter crashed six cars in the first 10 races of the season, Cheever was fed up.

He brought in Rice, a 25-year-old former Formula Atlantic champion, and gave him Scheckter's crew. A backup crew consisting of Red Bull Cheever Indy Racing and Greg Beck Motorsports was assigned to work with Scheckter.

The chemistry experiment worked as Scheckter won Sunday's Michigan Indy 400, with Rice finishing second. It was the first time rookies finished 1-2 in an IRL race since the inaugural event in 1996, when Buzz Calkins defeated Tony Stewart at Walt Disney World Speedway.

Cheever has a difficult decision to make, because Rice more than excelled in his IRL audition. Does Cheever hire Rice for the rest of the season and become a three-car operation? Or does he climb out of the car and become a full-time owner, with Scheckter and Rice as his drivers?

It is a prospect Cheever knows he must address.

"I've always gone to races and looked at it from a driver's perspective for 30 years," Cheever said. "Throughout this season, with Tomas' blazing pace and determination that he has, there have been times when I've enjoyed working and watching that progress more than I have (enjoyed) driving.

"The last 30 laps today, I was looking at all the crew and all the determination. I was in the car with both the drivers. I enjoyed it immensely. It was very gratifying. It's a very, very proud moment for us as a company. This is our sixth win.

"To answer your question, I have no idea what I'm going to do. I am 44 years old, and I've had a lot fun things in racing. I don't know if it's this year, now, tomorrow, whatever."

A new beginning for Rice could be the beginning of the end for Cheever as a driver. After repeatedly admonishing Scheckter for his careless driving, it was Cheever who crashed with 34 laps to go.

It was yet another strange twist to a week that began with Cheever threatening Scheckter with his job, putting some immense psychological pressure on the protege and seeing it pay off with victory.

In the process, Cheever's methods also gave Rice an opportunity to shine and show that he deserves a ride in big-time auto racing.

"For once in my life, I'm prouder watching people drive than I am driving," Cheever said. "Both of them did an excellent job. I'm the one who made the bonehead mistake when I crashed in the second turn.

"I'll wear the bonehead trophy for a week. I had a funny feeling when we did all the swapping around earlier in the week, it would be the spark to challenge Tomas. I could have either looked like a total idiot doing that or a good psychologist. He won."

Rice drove with the aggressiveness of a pit bull and the savvy of a veteran. With a few breaks, it could have been him instead of Scheckter in victory lane.

But on this day, Scheckter's determination was rewarded. Now, Rice is waiting to see if he is rewarded with a full-time ride.

"I'm going to go to Indy here tomorrow and I'll sit down with Eddie and see if he has the funding and personnel and if he wants to run a third car," Rice said. "I wouldn't say it's secured. I don't have anything signed. I'm not guaranteed anything right now. Eddie asked me to come out here and run with him.

"Hopefully if the funding is there, the personnel is there, they want me back, I'll be back maybe again for another race. I was brought in here to do one thing and that was to run up front and make it 1-2-3 for Cheever. We made it a 1-2 and I came in and did the job I was supposed to."

If anything, Rice should be back for the rest of the season. If he can back up this performance with solid races, he could have a home in the IRL after never getting past the test driver status for two CART teams.

Rice was in close pursuit of Scheckter for most of the day and led three times for 15 laps.

"All this does is help my credibility now because the biggest excuse I keep hearing is either I don't have money or I've never been in a race," Rice said. "I still don't have the money. Obviously, I've shown I can race. So I'll tell all the team owners the same thing: I got a helmet, I got a suit, that's about all I got. I've shown them I can run up front."

Every time Rice was confronted with a problem on the track, he had an answer. That includes a pit stop screw-up on lap 169, when Rice did not pit under caution while the rest of the leaders did. The miscue dropped him to 10th on the final restart with 25 laps to go.

"I think the pit-stop thing was a very important part," Rice said. "I mean, obviously coming into the last thing we had a miscue. We were leading. We should have come in as soon as the pits opened. It would have been possibly been a different outcome. I was very nervous on my pit stops today. I wasn't exactly sure how it was going to go. I didn't want to stall the car and make my own mistakes."

Rice proved his aggressiveness and ability to make good decisions. His opportunities in CART never developed and he finally got the opportunity in the IRL on Sunday.

"I don't think speed has ever been an issue; it's been getting the opportunity to prove that I belong up here," Rice said. "We had the car to win. I think it's pretty obvious. We ran up front all day long, we had the opportunity and the deal in hand and we made an error. But Tomas and I came charging through the pack."

With his two young drivers finishing first and second, Cheever could enjoy the moment as an owner, even though he finished 22nd as a driver. The fact he was able to get his point across to Scheckter and motivate the South African to victory made it worthwhile.

"We finally achieved what we wanted to achieve," Cheever said. "It took us a large number of races. As a team, it was perfect execution. It was probably one of the best drives I've seen in a race car from any category. It was very exciting.

"I was looking in the stands. There wasn't one person sitting down. Everybody was standing. And it was heart-pounding, gut-wrenching open-wheel racing at its best."