AGR trio beat 2004 pole at PIR

All three - Dario Franchitti, Dan Wheldon and Tony Kanaan - exceeded 175mph while simulating qualifying laps under near-perfect conditions, topping Wheldon's 2004 pole-winning lap of 174.779mph. Last year's race took place before the mid-season switch from 3.5 to 3.0-litre engines so logically, even on a short oval where power is less crucial, times should have been slower this year.

"I didn't even know what the pole speed was until somebody brought it up just a little bit ago," said Franchitti, fastest of the day with a lap of 20.5042 seconds (175.574mph) during the morning session. "We've got a lot of things working well in the qualifying simulation. For me, it's more important that we get the racecar right. We made a lot of progress toward doing that."

The possibility that Honda has improved what was already nearly perfect doesn't bode well for rivals Toyota and Chevrolet. Honda won 14 of the 16 IRL races in 2004, took five of the top six places in the final standings, led 2,439 of 3,305 laps, and buoyed Kanaan's runaway championship victory.

Whether the impressive speeds Wednesday were a product of Honda's improvement or the cool, overcast conditions remained open for debate.

"If it was any hotter, I don't think you would have seen us go that fast," Kanaan said. "If we don't have weather like this during the race weekend here, I don't think you'll see us going that fast. It's a combination of the car improving and the conditions. The cars are definitely better, but the conditions helped a lot."

Following the three AGR Dallara-Hondas on the chart was fastest Toyota-powered driver Helio Castroneves, ahead of Scott Sharp and AGR's fourth driver Bryan Herta. Lone Chevrolet runner Panther Racing managed to nose into the top ten with Tomas Enge. Times remained as close as ever, with only 0.5s separating pacesetter Franchitti from 19th-placed Danica Patrick (Rahal-Letterman Panoz-Honda).

The only significant problem encountered by any of the teams was a Toyota engine failure for 2003 champion Scott Dixon, shortly before mid-afternoon rain signalled the end of the test. A total of 19 drivers participated on the second day, A.J. Foyt IV (slowest on Wednesday) having chosen to leave after day one due to his grandfather and team owner A.J. Foyt's business commitments. Series rookie Paul Dana's Hemelgarn Racing Dallara-Toyota and Ed Carpenter's Tony-George owned Vision Racing squad were not yet in a position to test so will have to debut in practice at Homestead.

"We've been here a couple of times, so hopefully we'll know what to do to translate one to the other - from the cold conditions to the warm," Franchitti said. "It's certainly not pointless. We think we've learned a lot, but things will change."

The season starts at Homestead on March 6.



Dario Franchitti (Andretti-Green Dallara-Honda) 20.5042s
Dan Wheldon (Andretti-Green Dallara-Honda) 20.5601s
Tony Kanaan (Andretti-Green Dallara-Honda) 20.5673s
Helio Castroneves (Penske Dallara-Toyota) 20.6429s
Scott Sharp (Fernandez Panoz-Honda) 20.6575s
Bryan Herta (Andretti-Green Dallara-Honda) 20.6811s
Buddy Rice (Rahal-Letterman Panoz-Honda) 20.6929s
Sam Hornish Jr (Penske Dallara-Toyota) 20.7027s
Scott Dixon (Ganassi Panoz-Toyota) 20.7092s
Tomas Enge (Panther Dallara-Chevrolet) 20.7521s