Wheldon confident he can recover

The 2005 champion is chasing a record fourth consecutive win at the Miami oval, and was fastest in the opening practice session.

But he crashed on his first lap in qualifying, spinning into the Turn 4 wall.

"I simply got loose in Turns 3 and 4," Wheldon explained. "It's unfortunate because the car was incredibly quick."

However the Ganassi driver pointed out that he had recovered from a large testing accident to dominate the 2007 Homestead race.

"It happens. We crashed here in practice last year, so I'm sure we'll bounce back and we'll be fine," he said.

Wheldon's teammate Scott Dixon took pole for the race, and admitted that he had expected Wheldon to be his main threat until the crash.

"The last couple of years at least on my side we haven't qualified real well," Dixon said. "Dan has always been fast here."