IndyCar Series Completes Final Test Before Season Opener

The IndyCar Series completed two days of testing at the picturesque Barber Motorsports Park with Team Penske’s Will Power setting the fastest time of the test with a lap of 1:09.4557 and 119.213 mph.

"It was good. I haven't spent much time with this team, so I spent the two days gelling with my engineer. We're really working well together now. We found some good things in the car, and we found a car that suits me” said a confident Power. 

“We're happy and we'll be pretty confident going into St. Pete. This is a great track to get fit on because you never stop working. We won't use this much energy getting around St. Pete, so it was a good workout. I was just happy to get back in the car on a road course."

Dario Franchitti had the second best lap driving for Target Chip Ganassi Racing followed closely by Power’s teammate Ryan Briscoe and Scott Dixon in the other Ganassi car.

The Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing drivers Graham Rahal and Robert Doornbos were fifth and sixth, respectively.

"The car is pretty good. We're learning quite a lot, which is important," Rahal said. “I think at the end of the day we're competitive here, but that's not what matters most.

"What matters most to us is to make sure that when we go to all the road races we've got a good shot at winning, and that's what we're trying to do right now—learn as much as we can. I think we're doing that. We've got a lot more knowledge and understanding than we did before, and that's what we need. We're trying things that we hope we can adapt to other tracks. That's been our focus."

Following the Newman/Haas/Lanigan drivers were Marco Andretti and Tony Kanaan in their Andretti-Green Racing Dallaras.

All 16 drivers participating in the test improved their lap times from the previous day’s test, with the top 10 drivers all posting times faster quicker Scott Dixon’s best time of 1:10.5005 set on Sunday.

The test was the second and final Open Test before the 2009 season begins April 5 with the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

You can watch the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg; live on April 5 at 2 p.m. on VERSUS.

1. (3) Will Power, Dallara-Honda, 119.213
2. (10) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 118.663
3. (6) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 118.557
4. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 118.471
5. (02) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 118.425
6. (06) Robert Doornbos, Dallara-Honda, 118.247
7. (26) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 118.132
8. (11) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 117.769
9. (18) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 117.751
10. (27) Hideki Mutoh, Dallara-Honda, 117.685
11. (4) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, 117.402
12. (24) Mike Conway, Dallara-Honda, 117.120
13. (12) Raphael Matos, Dallara-Honda, 117.106
14. (5) Mario Moraes, Dallara-Honda, 117.080
15. (7) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 116.881
16. (20) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda, 115.765

Photos and Quotes Courtesy of the IRL.