Champ Car teams fly at Nazareth

Penske, Ganassi and Team Rahal sent cars to the track and ran for a considerable number of laps.

Penske's new-for-2000 signing Gil de Ferran ended the day on top, completing 100 laps, the fastest of which was timed at nearly 185 mph, according to data provided by his team.

The Brazilian's Reynard-Honda was joined by the Lola-Toyota of Juan Montoya, representing Ganassi, and Kenny Brack, the new signing of Team Rahal.

Despite a track not in the most grippy of conditions, and a less-than-ideal tyre, all the teams ran quickly, and within 0.2 seconds of each other.

The teams believe that the new Handford Mk II rear wing, designed to cut downforce and improve racing provided an improvement over 1999 Superspeedway trim.

"The new wing slows the cars down on the straight-aways a little bit," claimed Tom Anderson, Gannasi team manager.

"But they handle much better through the corners."

Brack's team mate Max Papis agreed with Anderson, adding: "With this new wing, you can really feel comfortable attacking the corners - last year, most of the drivers were scared to go out there and race."

"By the time the race comes, we should be running lap times around a half-second faster than last year," claimed Anderson.