McGehee to throw out first pitch.

Robby McGehee, driver of Cahill Racing's Scottrade.com/Dollar Rent-a-Car Indy car, is scheduled to throw out the first pitch in tomorrow night's Philadelphia Phillies baseball game at Veteran's Stadium here.

The Phillies will face the Cincinnati Reds in the game, which begins at 7:05 p.m. Eastern time.

McGehee is also scheduled to sign autographs at the game from 5:45 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the 300 Level Concourse, Gate B, and from 7:15 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. at the 200 Level Concourse behind home plate.

Prior to the baseball game McGehee will make an appearance at Broadcast Plaza, right across the street from the Liberty Bell, from noon to 2 p.m. In addition to doing some TV interviews, McGehee will be available to meet fans and sign autographs there too.

Fans will also be able to get a first-hand look at an Indy Racing League car that will be on display at Broadcast Plaza, located at Fifth and Market streets in the heart of Philadelphia's historic district.

McGehee is in the City of Brotherly Love to promote the Indy Racing League's inaugural Firestone Indy 225 at Nazareth Speedway in nearby Nazareth, Pa. on Sunday, April 21.

"Anytime you can combine baseball with auto racing, count me in," said McGehee, one of the Indy Racing League's most popular drivers. "Last year at our race at Gateway International Raceway in St. Louis, my Indy car was done up in the Cardinals' colours. We had a lot of fun with that, and we're going to have a lot of fun tomorrow in Philadelphia. I love baseball, and I hear the Philly Phanatic is a big racing fan, too!"

Pennsylvania is one of the nation's hot-beds of auto racing, and McGehee, a native of St. Louis, is really looking forward to competing in the Keystone State. Practice for the Firestone Indy 225 will begin next Friday, April 19, with MBNA Qualifications on Saturday, April 20 and the race itself at 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 21. It will be televised live on ABC [in the USA].

McGehee, the Bank One Rookie of the Year in the 1999 Indy 500, realizes that Nazareth will be challenging.

"We'll definitely have our work cut out for us," he said. "We aren't able to test due to budget constraints, but I don't think we're as far behind as we could be because the teams that were at Nazareth last week to test didn't get much done due to the cold temperatures.

"The 'up' side is that Nazareth is a driver's track, and my engineer, John Hayes, and the rest of the Cahill Racing team work very hard to give me a good-handling car," he added. "We have done better at the tracks where handling is more important than we have done at the horsepower-type tracks, which have been a problem area for us so far this year.

"We think we have that problem solved for Indy though," McGehee continued. "Finishing the race at Nazareth will be very important for us going into the Indy 500 on Memorial Day weekend. Last year we destroyed the car at the race at Atlanta right before Indy, and we barely made it on the track in time for qualifying at Indy."

For the record, McGehee qualified 14th at Indy last year and finished a solid 11th.

The baseball game will cap a very busy week and a half for McGehee. On Monday at Walt Disney World Speedway in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., he tested the brand-new car which will be used in the Infiniti Pro Series, a new series which will be one rung below the Indy Racing League series in racing's hierarchy. The new series will debut July 7 at Kansas Speedway.

"I was honoured to be asked to do the test," McGehee said. "I was substituting for Robbie Buhl, who couldn't do it after he got a concussion at our race at California Speedway a couple of weeks ago.

"It's a great car," McGehee continued. "After only the second run, it felt good. I was working with the engineers from Dallara, Infiniti and Firestone to figure out how the car would perform on long runs. It generates a lot of downforce, and it's really fun to drive. I think it's the car guys should be in to take them into the Indy Racing League. It's going to be a good series."

Prior to the test on Monday, McGehee was in Indianapolis last Thursday and Friday to be fitted for a seat for the Infiniti Pro Series test.

Last Saturday and Sunday he was in Chicago to be an honoured guest and speaker at a conference for the Think First Foundation, a group for which he is a spokesperson.

The Think First Foundation is a national organization committed to the prevention of brain and spinal cord injuries and other traumatic injuries through education. McGehee often speaks to schoolchildren about the importance of wearing seat belts and bicycle helmets as part of his work with Think First.

After the conference McGehee was off to Florida for the Infiniti Pro Series test and a flight back home to St. Louis Monday night. He met with executives of his sponsor, Scottrade, one of the top-10 on-line stock brokerage firms, on Wednesday. McGehee left for Philadelphia today. Then it will be back to St. Louis for a few days before returning to the Philadelphia area next Wednesday for next weekend's big race.

"It's a good thing I like to fly and drive," McGehee added with a smile.