Opening Weekend At the Speedway

Opening weekend finally came and went, with a lot of cars seeing action on the track.

After arriving at the speedway on Saturday morning, you could begin to smell the engines in Gasoline Alley. The cars emerged from the shop around 11am and the drivers began to make their way to the PIT area.

Within ten minutes, nearly every driver and car for the "Veteran" practice was ready to hit the track.

Tony Kanaan began his very busy Saturday in Danica Patrick's car. After taking it for a few laps, he then moved on to the next team car. He finally settled into his own car last, which completed his musical chairs segment of the day. All in all, he drove all five Andretti Autosport cars, and put three of them in the top seven positions.

After the first couple of hours of practice on Saturday, the Fast Five was compiled with the drivers most expected to see up there. Helio, Dario and Dixon were the top three. Dan Wheldon was fourth and Tony Kanaan had John Andretti's car in the top five.

Periodical rain clouds caused some delays here and there, but for the most part the early morning portion of the practice on Saturday went very well.

As the "Rookies" took the track later in the day, many people were anxious to see how Graham Rahal would perform. Rain became a bigger problem later in the day, and eventually ended the opening day.

Sunday began earlier with the rookies and drivers doing a refresher course at 11am. Many drivers were just trying to get settled in, and did so without a hitch.

As the veterans took to the track around 3pm, Helio once again flexed his muscle, getting back to the top of the charts, after Dixon knocked him off earlier. Helio posted a one-lap speed of 227.046mph. He was the only driver to reach the 227mph mark.

There were only two real incidents all weekend long. Ryan Hunter-Reay spun, exiting the pit road after a caution for a few raindrops. He didn't suffer any damage from the ordeal.

The biggest news of the day was the accident nearly involving two former Indianapolis 500 winners—Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon.

Wheldon was low exiting turn four and slid up and into the SAFER Barrier wall, nearly clipping Dixon on the way. Wheldon did some damage to the National Guard machine, and reportedly suffered a bruised foot.

At the end of the weekend, the Fast Five results were as follows:

1. Helio 2. Franchitti 3. Dixon 4. Wheldon 5. Power

The first six actually all belong to Helio, Franchitti, and Dixon; primary cars and backup cars both.

There were a total of 1,365 laps logged this weekend.

The race was not won this weekend, and the speed charts really won't matter by the end of the week, but it was interesting to see how some of the teams approached the track this weekend.

It was a fun weekend, can't wait for all of this week's practices!