The Race Report.(Brief Article)

Finally after months of personal frustration and a week of team hell, Tomas Scheckter won an Indy Racing League event. It came last weekend in the Michigan Indy 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

But in the days prior, the pedal-to-the-metal son of 1979 F1 champion Jody Scheckter seemed on the verge of being fired. His seventh crash of the season came at Nashville, and he blamed the lapped car of team owner Eddie Cheever Jr., who was so mad at the exchange that he told the media Buddy Rice would be joining the team at Michigan. Scheckter and Cheever kept their stalemate as Scheckter won the Michigan pole, and their press conference after qualifying was easily the tensest in IRL history.

Scheckter decided to drive like he was going to lead every inch of the 400-mile race. He relinquished the top spot only to pit for fuel, and might have delivered the most dominating drive of the season had his clutch not slipped on his final pit stop, on lap 163. That 23-second stop (under yellow fortunately) sent him to the back of the pack: 12th place overall, 20th car behind the leader.

It didn't matter. Scheckter simply used his powerful Infiniti engine and his own determination to motor to the front. Despite heavy traffic, the charge took but 21 laps. Scheckter led the final seven laps and held off Rice, a first-time IRL starter, by 1.7 seconds.

``We were giving other people a little bit of a chance,'' Scheckter ...