Eight cautions for 94 laps took some of the zing out of last weekend's SunTrust Indy Challenge at Richmond International Raceway. Sam Hornish's daring next-to-last lap pass of Gil de Ferran left fans excited, but so did some other performances.

	Scheckter

Tomas Scheckter
"When you start 18th, you've just got to get through the field," said the South African rookie after his fourth-place finish. "In the beginning, I used a high line and passed a lot of people."

This time Scheckter also used his head. On several occasions the high line didn't produce.

"I was in second when I came up on a lapped car," he said. "He (Alex Barron) went to the inside. I tried the outside two times, and I got blocked both times. Sometimes it happens."

Scheckter displayed a new level of patience that rewarded he and his Red Bull Infiniti operation with its first top-five of the season.

	Lazier

Buddy Lazier
Fire ended Lazier's night, but not before he showed us the Coors Light team has rediscovered some of its muscle for last year.

"I think the whole crew is disappointed because of the way we were running," Lazier said after his car ignited during a pit stop on lap 91. "We had a car that could win tonight."

Indeed he did. Lazier has struggled this season. At this point last year he had already amassed two of his four wins, placed in the top-five four times and was on his way to a second-place points finish.

This year, only three top-10s and a best finish of seventh at Phoenix and Fontana, Calif., have been Lazier's high water marks. He didn't lead a lap at Richmond, but was in the hunt until the pit fire knocked him out of the race.

Alex Barron

	Barron

This is his first year in the IRL and Barron is raising some eyebrows. Larry Blair, John Dick and Tom Gloy have put together an excellent team that gets stronger each week.

"We had a great car at the start of the race today," Barron said after finishing 10th. "We did have a little understeer at the beginning. The temperatures changed, and the track was slippery at night. We did have perfect balance, and it was easy to move forward. I thought we were in good shape."

Barron had a possible podium finish in hand until his engine went sour in the late stages of the race.

"We're not sure what happened," said team owner Larry Blair. "One minute it was running great and the next it started acting up."

The team switched to Speedway Engines for its Chevy powerplants after running McClaren Chevys through the first part of the season. Speedway Engines prep most of the Chevys at the top of the points except for Team Penske and Kelley Racing, so whatever the glitch was will certainly get cured in a hurry.

Richie Hearn
Hearn's seventh-place finish was his third top-10 in the six races he has driven in 2002.

"I had a lot of fun," he said. "I haven't been able to throw around an Indy car like this in a long time, so I had a great weekend.

"I had a mishap in the pits where I missed my box. It just got really busy. I had a hard time seeing. I came in late and lost all my spots. It's all right."

Hearn started the season without a ride and never lost hope. He was at every IRL event and spelled a couple of injured drivers before joining up with Sam Schmidt Motorsports. Since then they have run sixth (Indy), ninth (Texas), 12th (Pikes Peak) and now seventh.

"We could have worked on the car a little bit better," Hearn said. "With only two practice sessions and no testing, it makes it a little tough. All in all, I'm not going to complain."