More controversy at Red Bull Cheever.

Eddie Cheever broke into the top ten of the Indy Racing League point standings after finishing sixth in the Firestone Indy 200 at Nashville Superspeedway. However once again Tomas Scheckter was denied a possible podium finish when he crashed, this time whilst trying to lap his teammate.

A clever pit strategy, along with quick pit stops, salvaged a strong finish for Cheever, who struggled with an ill-handling car in the race. His sixth-place finish is his second best of the season, after finishing fifth at the Indianapolis 500.

"Our pit work and race strategy was the best of the year," said General Manager Richard Caron about the Red Bull Cheever Racing crew, which earned the Coors Light Pit Performance Award at Nashville.

For the fifth time this season Tomas Scheckter turned the fastest lap of the race at 202.154 mph. He was unable to capitalize on this speed though, after crashing on lap 172 when attempting to pass teammate Cheever. Scheckter, who was in second place before the accident, finished 13th in the final race standings. He was uninjured in the accident.

"Out of the 200 laps my car was good for about three of them," said Cheever. "It was pushing, and then it would get loose. I just had no grip. It reminded me of the car I had at Colorado. It was really hard to drive.

"The brightest part of our day was our pit stops, which came off like clockwork. Both teams got us back on track ahead of the competition every time we left the pits tonight.

"I have no idea what happened with Tomas. I was having a miserable time with the handling of the car. I saw the leaders coming and I got out of everybody's way. I would lose five or six miles an hour getting out of the way. When Tomas came up on me I went low. I was so low that there was dust coming inside the car. I looked in my mirrors and saw Tomas leading a group of cars. I expected a train to pass by, and they never came by."

Scheckter, who was lambasted by his team boss following the season-opening race in Miami when he forced the former Formula One driver into the wall, quietly seethed afterwards and said that he would wait for the traditional Red Bull Team Cheever post-race debrief before making his mind up on what happened. He had been battling with Billy Boat for second place although, perhaps as a reaction to Scheckter's spin, Boat crashed in identical fashion at the same time as the South African rookie and also retired.

"I was coming up on Eddie to lap him," fumed the son of former F1 World Champion Jody. "He was a lot slower and I approached him very quickly, took the high line and went into the wall. Billy (Boat) said in the medical centre that there might have been something on the track.

"Eddie and I just have to sit down and look at the tapes. I am not sure what happened. It was an unfortunate situation. I am disappointed for myself and disappointed for the team. They gave me a good car tonight, and did great work in the pits."