Watkins Glen Aftermath: Cheever Makes His Case

[sydude]

Watkins Glen Aftermath: Cheever Makes His Case
Written by: RACER staffWatkins Glen, N.Y. – 6/6/2006

Called twice an "idiot" on national TV during the Watkins Glen IndyCar race, due to incidents with Marco Andretti and Danica Patrick, veteran driver Eddie Cheever spoke out to defend himself of the accusations from his rivals.

Cheever, who finished 17th at the Glen after tangling with Andretti, denied the suggestions from both Marco and his father Michael that he intentionally took the 19-year old rookie out of the race.

"To think I would intentionally take anyone out is just ludicrous," the owner/driver said. "It's beyond words. It was a racing accident, pure and simple. There certainly wasn't any intent, so I find the accusations incomprehensible.

"Nobody took them out intentionally, so their accusations look a bit ridiculous."

It wasn't the first round of mutual accusations between the Andrettis and Cheever this season: at St. Petersburg, Cheever was similarly criticized for an incident happened during practice.

"Let there be no mistake, I would never let any feelings I might have carry over to the race course, where lives are at stake," he added. "I have lost too many friends to this sport to be so shallow. It was a racing accident, pure and simple."

Prior to that incident, Cheever had been accused of spinning out Danica Patrick's car. What exactly happened during Patrick's spin on a restart was unclear on TV, as footage showed only the No.16 Panoz already going the wrong way leading into the Glen pit straight. Over the radio to her team, Danica made use of the "I-word" to refer to the driver of the No.51 car.

"She did that all by herself," Cheever claimed.

The 48-year old didn't let the opportunity to have a poke at the Andrettis pass him by, however: "The last I looked, I earned the label of Indy 500 champion [in 1998, when Michael Andretti was driving in CART]; those lobbing unfounded accusations at me have not," he said. "I'm not perfect, and neither are my accusers. Let's get back to racing."

[LimeRockRacer]

"Idiot"

[dalyduo]

Cheever was penalized for rough driving at the last Rolex DP race. Mark Patterson had assesments similar to Danica and Marco. When you pull that stuff and you win everyone says "Hey... that's racing" When you get older and stop winning... your just a dangerous menace.

[John Greist]

At least Cheever is predictable. It's variable reinforcement that drives people mad.

[dalyduo]

Great point, just as in baseball each ump has a variant of the strike zone and as long as that variant is consistent everyone deals with it even if they don't like it.

At this point everyone is appalled but not surprised by Cheever’s aggressive antics because he is consistent in the way he runs people off the track.