Kanaan fastest on first testing day

Kanaan posted a lap of 20.6161 seconds (174.621mph) around the one-mile oval in the #11 Andretti Green Racing entry, and he was less than a tenth faster than Penske Racing's Helio Castroneves.

Kanaan's time proved that despite AGR loosing the upper hand in terms of extra works support from Honda, they will still be a force to be reckoned with this season.

Pheonix is no longer on the IRL schedule, however Kanaan believes that lessons learned from the test will still be transferable to other tracks.

"It's good to be back where I belong," Kanaan said. "We were doing a little work, trying to figure out the new engine configuration and the new wing configuration.

"It was a pretty comfortable day for us. This track is very similar to Milwaukee in Turns 3 and 4, and Turns 1 and 2 are like Richmond, so we can take a lot out of it."

Ganassi and Penske, who both struggled in the past two years with Toyota engines, have posted strong times yesterday.

Penske drivers Castroneves and Sam Hornish Jr. were strong throughout Tuesday's session, led by the 173.990mph lap by Castroneves in the #3 Penske.

AGR drivers Bryan Herta and Dario Franchitti followed Castroneves on the timesheets, both with laps around 20.7 seconds. Franchitti, who took over the Jim Beam sponsored car when 18-year-old Marco Andretti replaced Ganssi-bound Dan Wheldon, found the colour change hard to get used to.

"I kept wanting to go into the ArcaEx pit every time I came into the pit box," Franchitti said. "We've got to have the confidence that we can to do the job. There's always that part of you that wants to go look at the time sheet, but you have to have the discipline not to."

Hornish had the fifth-best lap of the 15 drivers who took part in the test - 20.8556 seconds in his Penske.

Reigning champion Dan Wheldon, in his first outing with Ganassi Racing, had the sixth-best lap, with teammate Scott Dixon setting the seventh-best lap of the day. Dixon, however, claimed his test day was not about posting the quickest laps.

"We've been trying to work through the biggest projects that we have with the new car," Dixon said. "We're not running for time right now. The car has been really consistent and the new package with Honda and Dallara has been nice so far."

Marco Andretti completed 99 laps in his first open practice run with AGR, with a top speed of 169.377mph.

Pos  Driver             Chassis   Speed     Laps
 1.  Tony Kanaan        Dallara   174.621    82
 2.  Helio Castroneves  Dallara   173.990    73
 3.  Bryan Herta        Dallara   173.627    82
 4.  Dario Franchitti   Dallara   173.249    72
 5.  Sam Hornish Jr     Dallara   172.616    96
 6.  Dan Wheldon        Dallara   172.539    97
 7.  Scott Dixon        Dallara   172.354    91
 8.  Buddy Rice         Panoz     171.353    99
 9.  Danica Patrick     Panoz     171.318    91
10.  Scott Sharp        Panoz     171.315    68
11.  Kosuke Matsuura    Dallara   170.950    64
12.  Ed Carpenter       Dallara   169.879    57
13.  Marco Andretti     Dallara   169.377    99
14.  Felipe Giaffone    Dallara   167.885    83
15.  Paul Dana          Panoz     166.660   101