Wheldon wary of new teams threat

The former IRL champion and Indianapolis 500 winner thinks the Champ Car refugees will be competitive and he takes the extra cars into account when thinking about his race strategy.

"It will change the complexity of the race a little bit and we're certainly going to be in more traffic, whether you're lapping cars or coming through the field after a stop," he said.

"We'll have to think more about the strategy because where last year you might drop back to fourth or fifth, now you might drop to 10th or 11th. So we'll have to work with the car to make sure it handles better in traffic."

Although the IndyCar newcomers will take time to adapt to oval racing, Wheldon doesn't think it will be long before they can challenge at the front.

"I've not raced against many of these drivers we have coming in, but they are very talented and their grasp of our style of racing will pick up relatively quickly. You're not going to see too much of a learning curve.

"The merger is fantastic for everybody. I want to be racing against the best drivers and teams, at the best venues in front of the biggest crowds, and that's going to happen as quickly as it possibly can.

"I can't wait to get to Homestead and be racing against 25 other cars, and not just any 25 - there are some great names. It's going to be fun racing them and to build up the individuals to hopefully get back to having household names because being part of that is very special for me."