Cheever Racing

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. The previous sponsor Crown Royal now is sponsoring the entry from Penske Racing.

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

Indy Pro Series

Grand Am

Racing results

Complete IRL IndyCar Series results

(key)

Year Chassis Engine Drivers No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
1996–1997 Lola T95/00 Menard V6t NHA LSV WDW PHX INDY TXS PPIR CLT NHA LSV
United States Eddie Cheever 51 15 25
G-Force GF01 Oldsmobile Aurora V8 1 12 23 6 4 6 9* 21
United States Jeff Ward 52 3
1998 Dallara IR8 Oldsmobile Aurora V8 WDW PHX INDY TXS NHA DOV CLT PPIR ATL TXS LSV
United States Eddie Cheever 51 24 10 1* 26 9 16 20 8 3 25 5
United States Robby Unser 52 11
G-Force GF01B 5 9 11 12 16 2 16
1999 Dallara IR9 Oldsmobile Aurora V8 WDW PHX INDY TXS PPIR ATL DOV PPIR LSV TXS
United States Eddie Cheever 51 1 17
Infiniti VRH35ADE V8 18 16 4 6 21 11 17 4
Oldsmobile Aurora V8 Belgium Wim Eyckmans 52 23
2000 Riley & Scott Mk V Infiniti VRH35ADE V8 WDW PHX LSV INDY TXS PPIR ATL KTY TXS
United States Eddie Cheever 51 3 10
Dallara IR-00 11 5 9 1 21 4 2
United States Ross Cheever 52 DNQ
2001 Dallara IR-01 Infiniti VRH35ADE V8 PHX HMS ATL INDY TXS PPIR RIR KAN NSH KTY GAT CHI TXS
United States Eddie Cheever 51 19 9 24 26 12 6 13 1* 15 21 4 3 18
Canada Scott Goodyear 52 32
2002 Dallara IR-02 Infiniti VRH35ADE V8 HMS PHX FON NAZ INDY TXS PPIR RIR KAN NSH MCH KTY GAT CHI TXS
United States Eddie Cheever 51 25 15 20 7 5 19 8 14 16 6 22 11 10 5 8
South Africa Tomas Scheckter 52 6 24 24 21 26* 17* 16 4 15* 13 1* 22 Wth
United States Buddy Rice 4 9 6
53 2 12
Italy Max Papis 23
United States Robby McGehee 13
2003 Dallara IR-03 Chevrolet Indy V8 HMS PHX MOT INDY TXS PPIR RIR KAN NSH MCH GAT KTY NAZ CHI FON TXS
United States Buddy Rice 52 16 9 13 11 14 9 9 19 18 11 14 11 10
United States Alex Barron 7 10 20
2004 Dallara IR-04 Chevrolet Indy V8 HMS PHX MOT INDY TXS RIR KAN NSH MIL MCH KTY PPIR NAZ CHI FON TXS
United States Alex Barron 51 16 4 12 12 3 22 10 17 7 11 11 10 12 12 18 14
United States Ed Carpenter 52 12 19 22 31 21 16 14 22 11 14 8 11 20 11 12 21
2005 Dallara IR-05 Toyota Indy V8 HMS PHX STP MOT INDY TXS RIR KAN NSH MIL MCH KTY PPIR SNM CHI WGL FON
United States Alex Barron 51 8 13 10 19 13 14 6 13 15 8 11 4 18 3 21 17 14
Canada Patrick Carpentier 83 7 9 8 13 21 16 3 14 3 7 9 12 10 4 9 10 15
2006 Dallara IR-05 Honda HI6R V8 HMS STP MOT INDY WGL TXS RIR KAN NSH MIL MCH KTY SNM CHI
United States Eddie Cheever 51 10 11 13 17 17 14 14
Czech Republic Tomáš Enge 19
Italy Max Papis 52 14

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 D.C. Points
2006 Dallara-Nissan HMS STP1 STP2 INDY WGL IMS NSH MIL KTY SNM1 SNM2 CHI
United States Chris Festa 51 16 6 8 4 14 15 9 Wth 8 5 8th 205
2007 Dallara-Nissan HMS STP1 STP2 INDY MIL IMS1 IMS2 IOW WGL1 WGL2 NSH MDO KTY SNM1 SNM2 CHI
United States Richard Antinucci 51 19 15 9 6 8 5 1 2 1 15th 273

References

  1. Braun, Travis. Cheever Racing to Offer Fabcar Chassis to Others, AutoWeek, September 19, 2007
  2. Cheever Group Revives A.J. Foyt's Coyote Chassis Brand, A.J. Foyt Racing News Releases, January 3, 2008
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