Tomas Scheckter silenced critics (including his owner) by winning the Michigan Indy 400. There were others who also excelled. This week's "Four Stars" go to some of those.

Sarah Fisher

	Fisher

The day didn't start off too well for Sarah Fisher. Severe thunderstorms in the Jackson area Saturday night produced a power outage at Fisher's Motel and Sarah's alarm clock malfunctioned, making her late for the mandatory drivers meeting.

Once the green dropped, it took Fisher a while to get her car dialed in but Mark Weida and Fisher's Smart Blade/Dreyer & Reinbold crew kept after the car and finally delivered her a familiar set up. "In sprint cars, you use a move called a slide job," Fisher said after the race. "Today we were the only car who could run it. It was a great move for this track."

So good that Fisher battled for the lead in the late stages and led the race twice. "I could drive the car high or low," she said. "I was able to race with the top guys in points for the first time in three years. We're definitely getting there."

Buddy Rice

	Rice

Buddy Rice has been the most touted driver never to get a chance to drive an Indy Car. "The biggest excuses I keep hearing," said the 2000 Toyota Atlantic champ, "is that I don't have money and I've never been in a race. I still don't have the money. Obviously, I showed I can race."

Yes he can.

Looking more like Kid Rock than a professional Indy Car driver, Rice took full advantage of his opportunity with Red Bull Cheever Racing. He chased Scheckter in qualifying and then again in the race. Like Scheckter, Rice overcame miscues to score.

"We screwed up on calling him in," said Rice's crew chief Owen Snider. "We had a miscommunication about when the pits were opening and got Buddy the message too late for him to pit with the leaders."

Rice went to the restart with 27 laps left at the tail of the lead lap. "I wasn't sure that we were going to be able to make it all the way back up front. It was going to be dependent on how everybody shuffled out," Rice said

Packs of cars provided Rice the opportunity he needed. "I mean, if it had been like it had been before, it would have been very difficult to get back to the front because everyone would have been in single file line running real hard. With everybody running together and packing up like that it made it easier for us to catch up."

His second-place finish is no guarantee that he will be part of the team in Kentucky. "I've got a helmet. I've got a suit. That's all I got," he said. "All this does it just maybe help my credibility."

Tony Renna

	Renna

Tony Renna continued his relief role for Kelley Racing finishing a strong fourth. After starting 10th on the grid, the Dayton-Indy Lights and Barber Dodge Pro Series veteran used solid pit stops and his knowledge of Michigan's draft to keep him with the front pack most of the afternoon.

"I knew we could be up front," said the Corteco/Bryant Chevy driver."Those last 25 laps were probably closer to an Indy Lights race that I'm used to here, so it was a good day for me. We're certainly very happy. The guys gave me great stops all day. Ilmor gave us great power and great reliability. With that package, I was pretty confident we could be here."

Renna is expected to remain with Kelley Racing, but whether or not it is as Al Unser's fill in or as a test driver is still up in the air. Unser could return to the cockpit as soon as Kentucky in two weeks.

Felipe Giaffone

	Giaffone

Now that Scheckter has broken through to the winner's circle, Felipe Giaffone inherits the mantle of best yet to win.

Giaffone and his Hollywood crew decided to work exclusively on race set ups and ended up 12th on the starting grid. "We were not very worried about qualifying because the race would be 400 miles," Giaffone said.

The extra attention to race conditions benefited Giaffone, who led six different times "My car was just on the edge, you know, not a lot of downforce," he said. "If it would take a little more downforce, the car would be pushing and lose."

His podium third continued his streak of top-10 finishes to nine in a row -- a streak started back in April at the Yamaha 400 at California Motor Speedway.