Cheever Racing

Eddie Cheever established the team to compete in the fledgling Indy Racing League IndyCar Series, running primarily as a single-car operation with Cheever as lead driver. The team concentrated its most ambitious efforts on the Indianapolis 500, occasionally entering a second car for that event alone. That strategy delivered its greatest result in 1998 when Cheever drove the team to victory at Indianapolis — the defining achievement of the squad's existence.

For the 2000 season the team switched to Infiniti engines and secured sponsorship from internet portal Excite. Under Infiniti power the team performed with moderate consistency and recorded the engine manufacturer's first IRL series win, affirming the partnership's promise. When Infiniti withdrew from the series after 2002 the team, by then backed by Red Bull, transitioned to Chevrolet engines and subsequently shifted to Toyota power following Chevrolet's own exit from the series in 2005.

Despite fielding recognised talent — including Alex Barron, Patrick Carpentier, Buddy Rice, Tomas Scheckter, Scott Goodyear, and Max Papis — the team endured a prolonged stretch of mechanical misfortune and engines that could not match the front-runners. The combination kept the squad firmly in the mid-pack for much of its later IRL life. Other drivers to represent the team included Jeff Ward, Robby McGehee, Tom Koscher, Robby Unser, Wim Eyckmans, Ed Carpenter, and Tomas Enge.

Entering 2006 without a confirmed sponsor, Cheever trimmed the operation to a single car and returned to the cockpit himself, motivated by a desire to cut costs and a personal wish to resume racing. He committed initially only through the Indianapolis 500 but continued until the eighth race of the season. The IRL programme shut down permanently after the Kansas Speedway round when the team could not secure a sponsor or a pay driver to continue.

Running alongside the IRL effort, Cheever Racing entered a Daytona Prototype in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. In 2007 Cheever purchased the intellectual property rights to the Fabcar chassis, resumed its development, and made the design available to other Grand-Am competitors. The chassis was subsequently renamed the Coyote, a tribute to the racing cars built during the 1970s by A. J. Foyt Enterprises. The team did not enter the 2009 Rolex 24 at Daytona, effectively ending its Grand-Am activity.

The Grand-Am roster reflected the international character Cheever brought to all his programmes, featuring Christian Fittipaldi, Antonio Garcia, Stefan Johansson, Lucas Luhr, Tommy Erdos, Emmanuel Collard, Fabio Babini, Matteo Bobbi, and Stephane Ortelli among others.

In 2006 Cheever also founded a team in the Indy Pro Series, the developmental feeder category below the IRL. Chris Festa drove the car in the programme's inaugural season. For 2007 the seat went to Richard Antinucci, Eddie's nephew, who captured two victories on a part-time schedule.

Cheever Racing holds a distinctive place in IRL history as a team that claimed the sport's most prestigious prize — the Indianapolis 500 — in just its third year of competition. The 1998 triumph stands as the clearest expression of the team's potential; the years that followed illustrated how difficult sustained competitiveness is without stable engine supply and consistent sponsorship. The team's development and commercialisation of the Coyote Daytona Prototype chassis extended its influence beyond its own race results, leaving a tangible legacy in the Grand-Am field.