Cheever Racing Explained

Cheever Racing was an auto racing team founded in 1996 by Eddie Cheever as Team Cheever in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series. They fielded a car for Cheever for much of its existence, but occasionally ran two cars, almost always for the Indianapolis 500. The team won the 1998 Indianapolis 500 with Cheever driving and then switched to Infiniti engines and gained sponsorship from Excite for 2000. The team continued to be moderately successful and gained Infiniti's first series win. When Infiniti left the series in 2003 the team, which by then was sponsored by Red Bull switched to Chevrolet engines and then switched to Toyota in 2005, after Chevrolet's departure. Despite some of the most talented drivers in the league, a long string of bad luck and underpowered engines rendered the team little more than mid-pack. With no sponsor for the 2006 season, Eddie decided to trim the team to a single car and return to the cockpit as both a cost-cutting move and to seize the opportunity to return to racing before he felt he got too old to be competitive. Cheever only committed to drive until the Indianapolis 500 but continued until the 8th race of the season. The IRL operation shut down after the Kansas Speedway race when it could not find a sponsor or pay driver to continue.

Cheever Racing also ran a Daytona Prototype car in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. In 2007 Cheever purchased the intellectual property rights to the Fabcar chassis and has renewed its development and begun offering the chassis to other teams in the series.^[1] The car was subsequently renamed the Coyote chassis, in tribute to the racing cars built in the 1970s by A. J. Foyt Enterprises.^[2] Cheever Racing did not field any entries for the 2009 Rolex 24 at Daytona.

In 2006, Cheever also founded an Indy Pro Series team. In 2006 its car was driven by Chris Festa. Their driver for the 2007 season was Richard Antinucci, Eddie's nephew, who captured two wins on a part-time schedule.

Drivers who have driven for Cheever

IRL IndyCar Series

• Alex Barron (2003–2005)
• Ed Carpenter (2004)
• Patrick Carpentier (2005)
• Eddie Cheever (1996–2002, 2006)
• Tomáš Enge (2006)
• Wim Eyckmans (1999)
• Scott Goodyear (2001)
• Robby McGehee (2002)
• Max Papis (2002, 2006)
• Buddy Rice (2002–2003)
• Tomas Scheckter (2002)
• Robby Unser (1998)
• Jeff Ward (1997)

Indy Pro Series

• Richard Antinucci (2007)
• Chris Festa (2006)

Grand Am

• Fabio Babini (2008)
• Matteo Bobbi (2008)
• Harrison Brix (2007)
• Patrick Carpentier (2006)
• Eddie Cheever (2006–2007)
• Emmanuel Collard (2007)
• Tommy Erdos (2007–2008)
• Christian Fittipaldi (2006–2008)
• Antonio García (2008)
• Stefan Johansson (2006)
• Tom Kimber-Smith (2008)
• Lucas Luhr (2006)
• Sascha Maassen (2007)
• Scott Mayer (2008)
• Mike Newton (2007–2008)
• Hoover Orsi (2006)
• Stephane Ortelli (2008)
• Brent Sherman (2008)

Racing results

Complete IRL IndyCar Series results

(key)

Year	Chassis	Engine	Tyres	Drivers	No.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17
1996–1997						NHA	LSV	WDW	PHX	INDY	TXS	PPIR	CLT	NHA2	LSV2
	Lola T95/00	Menard V6t			51	15	25																3rd	230
	G-Force GF01	Oldsmobile Aurora V8					1	12	23	6	4	6	9*	21
					52					3														69
1998						WDW	PHX	INDY	TXS	NHA	DOV	CLT	PPIR	ATL	TXS	LSV
	Dallara IR8	Oldsmobile Aurora V8		Eddie Cheever	51	24	10	1*	26	9	16	20	8	3	25	5							9th	222
				Robby Unser	52					11													16th	176
	G-Force GF01B						5	9		11		12	16	2	16
1999									INDY
	Dallara IR9	Oldsmobile Aurora V8		Eddie Cheever	51	1	17	C															7th	222
		Infiniti VRH35ADE V8						18	16	4	6	21	11	17	4
		Oldsmobile Aurora V8			52				23														45th	7
2000									INDY
	Mk VII	Infiniti VRH35ADE V8		Eddie Cheever	51	3	10																3rd	257
	Dallara IR-00						11	5	9	1	21	4	2
				Ross Cheever	52				DNQ														NC	—
2001									INDY
	Dallara IR-01	Infiniti VRH35ADE V8		Eddie Cheever	51	19	9	24	26	12	6	13	1*	15	21	4	3	18					8th	261
				Scott Goodyear	52				32														48th	1
2002										INDY						MCH
	Dallara IR-02	Infiniti VRH35ADE V8		Eddie Cheever	51	25	15	20	7	5	19	8	14	16	6	22	11	10	5	8			10th	280
					52	6	24	24	21	26*	17*	16	4	15*	13	1*	22	Wth					14th	210
				Buddy Rice														4	9	6			22nd	140
				53											2	12
					Max Papis					23														16
					Robby McGehee															13				142
2003									INDY
	Dallara IR-03	Chevrolet Indy V8		Buddy Rice	52	16	9	13	11	14	9	9	19	18	11	14	11	10					16th	229
				Alex Barron															7	10	20			216
2004									INDY
	Dallara IR-04	Chevrolet Indy V8		Alex Barron	51	16	4	12	12	3	22	10	17	7	11	11	10	12	12	18	14		12th	310
				Ed Carpenter	52	12	19	22	31	21	16	14	22	11	14	8	11	20	11	12	21		16th	245
2005										INDY
	Dallara IR-05	Toyota Indy V8		Alex Barron	51	8	13	10	19	13	14	6	13	15	8	11	4	18	3	21	17	14	11th	329
					83	7	9	8	13	21	16	3	14	3	7	9	12	10	4	9	10	15	10th	376
2006						HMS	STP		INDY
	Dallara IR-05	Honda HI6R V8		Eddie Cheever	51	10	11		13	17	17	14	14										19th	114
				Tomáš Enge				19															32nd	12
				Max Papis	52				14														27th	16

1. The 1999 VisionAire 500K at Charlotte was cancelled after 79 laps due to spectator fatalities.

Complete Indy Pro Series results

(key)

Year	Car	Drivers	No.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16		Points
2006	Dallara-Nissan			HMS	STP		INDY	WGL	IMS	NSH	MIL	KTY	SNM		CHI
		Chris Festa	51	16	6	8	4	14	15	9	Wth	8			5					8th	205
2007	Dallara-Nissan			HMS	STP		INDY	MIL	IMS		IOW	WGL		NSH	MDO	KTY	SNM		CHI
		Richard Antinucci	51		19	15			9	6		8	5		1		2	1		15th	273

IndyCar wins

	Season	Date	Sanction	Track / Race	No.	Winning Driver	Chassis	Engine	Tire	Grid	Laps Led
1	1996-97	January 25	IRL	Walt Disney World Speedway (O)	51	Eddie Cheever	G-Force GF01	Oldsmobile Aurora V8	Goodyear	5	4
2	1998	May 24	IRL	Indianapolis 500 (O)	51	Eddie Cheever (2)	Dallara IR8	Oldsmobile Aurora V8	Goodyear	17	76
3	1999	January 24	IRL	Walt Disney World Speedway (O)	51	Eddie Cheever (3)	Dallara IR9	Oldsmobile Aurora V8	Goodyear	13	40
4	2000	June 18	IRL	Pikes Peak International Raceway (O)	51	Eddie Cheever (4)	Dallara IR-00	Infiniti VRH35ADE V8	Firestone	10	39
5	2001	July 8	IRL	Kansas Speedway (O)	51	Eddie Cheever (5)	Dallara IR-01	Infiniti VRH35ADE V8	Firestone	2	104
6	2002	July 28	IRL	Michigan International Speedway (O)	52	Tomas Scheckter (R)	Dallara IR-02	Infiniti VRH35ADE V8	Firestone	Pole	122

References

1. Braun, Travis. Cheever Racing to Offer Fabcar Chassis to Others, AutoWeek, September 19, 2007
2. http://www.foytracing.com/news/2007_archive/releases/index.shtml Cheever Group Revives A.J. Foyt's Coyote Chassis Brand