Kanaan searching for second 2003 win

The Brazilian is only the driver left of the trio, in including Michael Andretti and Dario Franchitti, that originally began the season with Andretti Green Racing and consistently high-placed finishes - seven top-five placings in nine rounds - have seen him rise to the top of the table.

"We didn't always have the fastest race car in some of the previous races, but I think it showed the strength of the team by the way we hung in there," Kanaan said. "With the way the points are awarded in this series, you need to be consistent and you need to finish races. Certainly, at some tougher circuits, we managed to score a lot of really good points, but we still have a lot of work to do to try and win the championship."

Kanaan has raced on Michigan's super-speedway before in his Champ Car days and sees the venue as the perfect place to return to Victory Lane. "I have good memories from Michigan," He said. " I love racing there. I just hope we can be as competitive as we've been everywhere else.

"It will be new for us in the sense that we are running Indy Racing League cars there, with a little bit different aerodynamic rules than what we've been used to, but we certainly feel comfortable going back there. We tested well and hopefully we can have our first 'one-two-three' finish of the year.

Team-mate Bryan Herta, who has replaced the injured Franchitti until of the season and won at Kansas a few week's back, also only has Champ Car experience at Michigan.

"It is nice to go to a track where I have raced before," he said. "I've always enjoyed racing at Michigan and I've had some successes there. I haven't won there yet but this weekend seems like a good time to get my first one there.

"We tested at Michigan last week and ran a bunch of laps and learned some things," said Herta. "We left the test with more ideas than we started with, so it was a very productive test. We had a really good car at Nashville, but we also had some bad luck bite us. If we continue to have good cars the finishes will come."