Rahal targets top-five finish

The American, who watched the Miami-Homestead oval race from the pits after a lack of spares prevented his team repairing the car he crashed in practice, says that on the evidence of testing at Sebring, NHL should be able to mix it with the IndyCar regulars.

"We went to Sebring [this week], but it started to pour, so we only got about 16 laps in," he said. "It's going to be tough for us, but again this is just another race car. We keep telling ourselves that.

"In only 16 laps, our times were only about a second off the quickest of [the regular runners in the IndyCar Series] test, so I think we should be okay. I certainly don't expect to run first this weekend, but I think a top-five is a reasonable finish for us."

Rahal admitted that having to delay the start of his season by one race had been frustrating, adding that he couldn't wait to get started in St Petersburg.

"I'm looking forward to being part of this," he said. "It feels like it's been a long time coming. I know it's only been a couple of weeks, but we're really looking forward to it.

"It's going to be quite the challenge this weekend, but we should be there. I think qualifying is a good new format.

"If we can continue on through qualifying and get through the first couple of sessions, there's quite a bit of track time, so hopefully we can do that and get a little more familiar with these cars."