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

Indy Pro Series

Grand Am

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 Pts Pos Pos
1996–1997 NHA LSV WDW PHX INDY TXS PPIR CLT NHA2 LSV2
Lola T95/00 Menard V6t G United States Eddie Cheever 51 15 25 3rd 230
G-Force GF01 Oldsmobile Aurora V8 1 12 23 6 4 6 9* 21
United States Jeff Ward 52 3 30th 69
1998 WDW PHX INDY TXS NHA DOV CLT PPIR ATL TXS LSV
Dallara IR8 Oldsmobile Aurora V8 G United States Eddie Cheever 51 24 10 1* 26 9 16 20 8 3 25 5 9th 222
United States Robby Unser 52 11 16th 176
G-Force GF01B 5 9 11 12 16 2 16
1999 WDW PHX CLT INDY TXS PPIR ATL DOV PPIR LSV TXS
Dallara IR9 Oldsmobile Aurora V8 G United States Eddie Cheever 51 1 17 C1 7th 222
Infiniti VRH35ADE V8 18 16 4 6 21 11 17 4
Oldsmobile Aurora V8 Belgium Wim Eyckmans 52 23 45th 7
2000 WDW PHX LSV INDY TXS PPIR ATL KTY TXS
Riley & Scott Mk VII Infiniti VRH35ADE V8 F United States Eddie Cheever 51 3 10 3rd 257
Dallara IR-00 11 5 9 1 21 4 2
United States Ross Cheever 52 DNQ NC
2001 PHX HMS ATL INDY TXS PPIR RIR KAN NSH KTY GAT CHI TXS
Dallara IR-01 Infiniti VRH35ADE V8 F United States Eddie Cheever 51 19 9 24 26 12 6 13 1* 15 21 4 3 18 8th 261
Canada Scott Goodyear 52 32 48th 1
2002 HMS PHX FON NAZ INDY TXS PPIR RIR KAN NSH MCH KTY GAT CHI TXS
Dallara IR-02 Infiniti VRH35ADE V8 F United States Eddie Cheever 51 25 15 20 7 5 19 8 14 16 6 22 11 10 5 8 10th 280
South Africa Tomas Scheckter 52 6 24 24 21 26* 17* 16 4 15* 13 1* 22 Wth 14th 210
United States Buddy Rice 4 9 6 22nd 140
53 2 12
Italy Max Papis 23 43rd 16
United States Robby McGehee 13 21st 142
2003 HMS PHX MOT INDY TXS PPIR RIR KAN NSH MCH GAT KTY NAZ CHI FON TXS
Dallara IR-03 Chevrolet Indy V8 F United States Buddy Rice 52 16 9 13 11 14 9 9 19 18 11 14 11 10 16th 229
United States Alex Barron 7 10 20 17th 216
2004 HMS PHX MOT INDY TXS RIR KAN NSH MIL MCH KTY PPIR NAZ CHI FON TXS
Dallara IR-04 Chevrolet Indy V8 F United States Alex Barron 51 16 4 12 12 3 22 10 17 7 11 11 10 12 12 18 14 12th 310
United States Ed Carpenter 52 12 19 22 31 21 16 14 22 11 14 8 11 20 11 12 21 16th 245
2005 HMS PHX STP MOT INDY TXS RIR KAN NSH MIL MCH KTY PPIR SNM CHI WGL FON
Dallara IR-05 Toyota Indy V8 F United States Alex Barron 51 8 13 10 19 13 14 6 13 15 8 11 4 18 3 21 17 14 11th 329
Canada Patrick Carpentier 83 7 9 8 13 21 16 3 14 3 7 9 12 10 4 9 10 15 10th 376
2006 HMS STP MOT INDY WGL TXS RIR KAN NSH MIL MCH KTY SNM CHI
Dallara IR-05 Honda HI6R V8 F United States Eddie Cheever 51 10 11 13 17 17 14 14 19th 114
Czech Republic Tomáš Enge 19 32nd 12
Italy 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 D.C. Points
2006 Dallara-Nissan HMS STP INDY WGL IMS NSH MIL KTY SNM CHI
United States 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
United States Richard Antinucci 51 19 15 9 6 8 5 1 2 1 15th 273

IndyCar wins

#SeasonDateSanctionTrack / RaceNo.Winning DriverChassisEngineTireGridLaps Led
1 1996-97 January 25 IRL Walt Disney World Speedway (O) 51 United States Eddie Cheever G-Force GF01 Oldsmobile Aurora V8 Goodyear 5 4
2 1998 May 24 IRL Indianapolis 500 (O) 51 United States Eddie Cheever (2) Dallara IR8 Oldsmobile Aurora V8 Goodyear 17 76
3 1999 January 24 IRL Walt Disney World Speedway (O) 51 United States Eddie Cheever (3) Dallara IR9 Oldsmobile Aurora V8 Goodyear 13 40
4 2000 June 18 IRL Pikes Peak International Raceway (O) 51 United States Eddie Cheever (4) Dallara IR-00 Infiniti VRH35ADE V8 Firestone 10 39
5 2001 July 8 IRL Kansas Speedway (O) 51 United States Eddie Cheever (5) Dallara IR-01 Infiniti VRH35ADE V8 Firestone 2 104
6 2002 July 28 IRL Michigan International Speedway (O) 52 South Africa Tomas Scheckter (R) Dallara IR-02 Infiniti VRH35ADE V8 Firestone Pole 122

References

  1. Braun, Travis. Cheever Racing to Offer Fabcar Chassis to Others Archived 2011-09-26 at the Wayback Machine, AutoWeek, September 19, 2007
  2. Cheever Group Revives A.J. Foyt's Coyote Chassis Brand Archived December 31, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, A.J. Foyt Racing News Releases, January 3, 2008
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