Cheever

If you're Eddie Cheever, the rest of this year's IRL schedule has got to be a pressure cooker.

Cheever loses his engine source -- Nissan Infiniti -- at season's end. And, from the looks of things, he'll lose teammate Tomas Scheckter, too. Red Bull Cheever Racing started the season with deep pockets and lots of promise. It enters this weekend's race at Kentucky with a 1-2 sweep of the most recent race and much work to be done for the future.

When Cheever celebrated Scheckter and Buddy Rice's outstanding efforts at Michigan, you knew the 44-year-old veteran was thinking about the future.

"I've always gone to races and looked at it from a driver's perspective for 30 years," he said after his team's triumph. "There have been times when I've enjoyed working and watching the progress of Tomas more than I have been driving. The last 30 laps today, I was looking at all the crew and all the determination. I was in the car with both the drivers.

"I felt kind of silly in my overalls. But it was very, very proud moment for us as a team I have no idea what I'm going to do. I am 44 years old, and I've had a lot fun things in racing. I don't know if it's this year, now, tomorrow, whatever."

It is hard to imagine Scheckter staying with Cheever beyond this season. Despite his bumpy rookie season, the young South African is a very hot commodity.

Christian Fittipaldi's announcement this week that he would vacate his CART seat with Newman-Haas Racing certainly puts Scheckter on that team's short list. When rumors swirled earlier this year that he might lose his seat with Cheever, several IRL teams whispered their interest, too.

Cheever's decision to add Rice to his operation for Kentucky was a smart move. Rice brings an X-Games swagger to the team. Rice's future value, however, gets its test this weekend. Should he log another impressive run, Rice will become prime real estate in a buyer's market.

The bigger issue facing Cheever is an engine supplier. Too few people give Cheever the credit he deserves for taking Infiniti from an IRL afterthought and a spot next to the Riley & Scott IRL chassis to respectability -- and victory.

"Michigan's 1-2 (finish) puts us in a very strong position for next year," Cheever said. "Now that we've got the monkey off our back, I see no reason why it shouldn't continue for the rest of the season. Nissan makes their own decisions."

Chevy announced at Michigan its lead teams for 2003 and Cheever's operation was not one of them. Toyota is headed forward with Team Penske and Kelley Racing leading its camp.

Michael Andretti's purchase of majority interest in Team Green has fueled speculation that if he decides to bolt to the IRL he will be one of Honda's top developers. Ditto for Mo Nunn Racing. It seems to be the likeliest place for Cheever as well.

But to make it happen, Cheever needs to cash in on the momentum his team saw swing their way at Michigan. They need to earn poles and win races.

"I was talking to our general manager (Richard Caron) the other day," Cheever said. "I said, 'It's a five-race championship now. Let's see if we can win every one of the five races.' That's what's left."