Cheever Wins Indy 200 Without Even Knowing It

Eddie Cheever really didn’t know what was going on. Fortunately, he didn’t need to.

The 1998 Indianapolis 500 winner drove the final 60 miles of Sunday’s Indy 200 at Walt Disney World Speedway at Lake Buena Vista, Fla., without a radio, using his instincts and experience to hold on for a win he didn’t know was his until the end of his cool-down lap in the Indy Racing League season opener.

“The car was simply impeccable, but I lost radio communications with 60 laps to go and that was difficult,” Cheever said. “I thought Scott Sharp was ahead of me in the lead. I thought I had finished second.

“I didn’t know I had won until they sent me to the starting line when I came back around.”

Pole-sitter Sharp had fallen behind when his last pit stop was followed moments later by a yellow flag. So he was not in contention when Cheever drove past Raul Boesel and into the lead on the 193rd of 200 laps on the one-mile tri-oval.

Boesel’s McCormack Motorsports team chose to gamble, hoping to race the final 81 laps on one fuel load. It appeared the move would pay off when all the other contenders were forced to pit for fuel in the late stages, leaving Boesel in the lead on lap 181 after Sharp headed for pit lane.

But Boesel came up seven laps short, slowing on the back straightaway as the other leaders sped past.

Scott Goodyear, who led several times, wound up second, trailing Cheever, who averaged 118.538 mph, by 5.148 seconds.

College Football

Ricky Williams rushed for 114 yards and two touchdowns, highlighting the South’s 34-14 victory over the North in the 53rd annual Hula Bowl at Wailuku, Hawaii.

Williams, the Heisman Trophy winner from Texas, carried 22 times and was named most valuable player for the South. He scored on a two-yard run in the second quarter and put the South ahead for good with an 11-yard run early in the fourth quarter.

Kansas State quarterback Michael Bishop finished 10 for 17 for 197 yards and two touchdown passes for the South.

Winter Sports

Jure Kosir of Slovenia won a men’s slalom at Kitzbuhel, Austria, and Hermann Maier lost the lead in the overall World Cup standings.

Third after the opening run and trailing by nearly a half-second, Kosir produced a flawless second run, covering the icy Ganslern course in 49.11 seconds, for a combined time of 1:36.40, 0.04 seconds ahead of Didier Plaschy of Switzerland.

Going out in the opening run and unable to earn World Cup points from either the slalom or the combined, Maier dropped from first to third in the overall behind Norwegians Lasse Kjus and Kjetil Andre Aamodt.

Alexandra Meissnitzer proved she still is the top contender for the World Cup title, ending a five-week victory drought with a giant slalom triumph at Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy.

Olympic double gold medalist Kazuyoshi Funaki of Japan won the second of the weekend’s two ski-jumping World Cup events at Sapporo, Japan, edging Martin Schmitt of Germany.

Three-time Olympian Nina Kemppel of Anchorage completed a sweep of all five women’s titles at the U.S. Cross-Country Championships at Rumford, Maine.

Kemppel won the 30-kilometer race in 1:37.38.9 for the ninth U.S. title of her career.

Olympic champion Christoph Langen of Germany completed a triumphant weekend by winning a four-man bobsled World Cup race at Igls, Austria.

Anton Blasbichler beat Reinhard Gruber by 0.01 second for his first World Cup luge victory of the season at Canala D’Agordo, Italy.

Bart Veldkamp, Dutch-born but competing for Belgium, left three Dutchmen behind and set a course record in winning a World Cup speedskating 5,000-meter race in 6:43.56 at Innsbruck, Austria.

Fabio Carta of Italy set a short-track speedskating world record in the 1,000 meters of 1 minute 27.454 seconds, at the European Championships at Obersdorf, Germany.

Germany won its fourth consecutive World Cup men’s biathlon relay at Anterselva, Italy.

Track and Field

Haile Gebrselassie did not regain the 3,000-meter world record he sought, and Linford Christie came out of retirement and nearly stole the spotlight at an indoor meet at Karlsruhe, Germany. While Gebrselassie finished in 7:26.80, the all-time third-fastest indoor 3,000, Christie produced a blazing finish to wind up a close second in the 60-meter dash.