Rookie Scheckter snares pole for Ameristar Casino Indy 200

? There was no PlayStation practice by Tomas Scheckter on Saturday.

But the young Indy Racing League driver’s owner and teammate, Eddie Cheever Jr., probably wishes he had a pause button. Maybe then the chief of Red Bull Cheever Racing could have saved his Speedway-best qualifying time and slowed down his prodigy’s pole mark.

Scheckter set a Kansas Speedway record for the fastest lap around the 11/2-mile trioval with a speed of 218.547 miles per hour, easily earning him the pole for today’s noon Ameristar Casino Indy 200 race.

“I am proud of Tomas,” said Cheever, who won the Speedway’s inaugural IRL race last July. “I bet Ron Hemelgarn (owner of Hemelgarn racing) $50 that Tomas was going to get the pole. So I am $50 richer and very proud that we have a Red Bull car on the pole.”

Scheckter overtook a handful of other top racers who preceded him with Speedway-best lap times, but said a little guidance from Cheever made the difference.

“It helps when you’ve got a teammate out there that runs a little bit before you,” said the 21-year-old South African, who claimed the second pole of his rookie season. “We made some changes, but here it’s going to be a dogfight.”

That could be the case since three former Indianapolis 500 winners qualified in the top seven, but at least this weekend Scheckter spent time getting to know the track in his actual car and not from a video game.

“I played it before I went to Colorado, and I told myself I’d never play a PlayStation game after I had that performance,” Scheckter joked of his effort to try to take hints off the game. He finished that race in 16th place.

Sam Hornish Jr., last year’s IRL points champion, finished second to Scheckter in Saturday’s qualifying with a speed of 217.743 mph and said he wouldn’t mind following the Red Bull boys for a while.

“I think I’m going to get behind the two Cheever cars and follow them for the first 190 laps or whatever it is, and then try to make my move late,” Hornish said, flashing a smile toward Scheckter. “They’ll be tough to keep up with. It’s going to be a tough race.”

Cheever was third in qualifying, followed by Laurent Redon and Buddy Lazier.

Penske team slow

A somewhat surprising showing came from the Marlboro Team Penske drivers, who were slower than normal despite having been fast all weekend and also making a special testing trip to the speedway a little over two weeks ago.

IRL points leader Helio Castroneves came in seventh, but Gil de Ferran came in 21st out of 23 drivers.

“I really don’t know what happened during our qualifying run,” said de Ferran, who trails Castroneves by just three points in the championship race. “During qualifying the car had so much understeer that I almost crashed in (Turn) 4 opening my lap.

“I made my job tomorrow that much more difficult by starting in the back, but the car has been handling well in races.”

Kansas Speedway 66111

Few fans would have known the driver of the No. 7 HomeMed Pharmacy Dallara was “Beverly Hills 90210” actor Jason Priestley strictly by his moves on the track Saturday.

Priestley nearly won the pole for the inaugural Infiniti Pro Series race with a speed of 177.988 mph.

However, Priestley relinquished that role to A.J. Foyt IV, who won the qualifier for the 10:10 a.m. start to the Kansas 100 today with a speed of 180.330 mph.

“My hat’s off to my boys,” said Priestley, who’ll be starting in third place. “We lost an engine yesterday and they really thrashed this morning getting the car together.”

Foyt picked up a few tips from his legendary grandfather, A.J. Foyt, a four-time Indianapolis 500 winner.

“I could run it on the bottom just like my grandpa told me, and everything went as planned,” Foyt said. “The car was perfect.”

The elder Foyt said he wouldn’t let the pole go to his grandson’s head.

“He’ll be hard to live with now,” he joked. “He did a good job considering everything. He had no testing and no experience on a track this size and the car performed well. I’m proud of him.”