Wheldon driven by title defeat

The 2005 champion missed out on retaining his title due to a countback of race victories, after he tied on points with Penske Racing's Sam Hornish.

The new season gets underway on Saturday night at Homestead, and Wheldon is determined to throw away fewer points than he did in 2006.

"When you have the equipment and the opportunity to win a championship, you need to make the most of it," he said.

"That's something that I was very, very disappointed about last year. We had the opportunity, and as a team we let it slip. That's what's really driving me this year."

Wheldon won the season-opener last year on his debut for Chip Ganassi Racing, and the former Indianapolis 500 winner feels that he is in a stronger position this year due to his experience with the team.

"It makes a big difference when you have a second year on a team," he said. "Because of that, I think there wil be an improvement from our standpoint.

"I really do believe we have everything capable of being champions and hopefully to win the Indy 500 again, and we've got to make it happen."

However, Wheldon is not expecting a repeat of the domination showed by Penske and Ganassi in 2006, where the teams won all but two of the 14 races.

"It's going to be highly competitive this year, I think it's going to be one of the best seasons open-wheel racing has seen in a long time," he said.

"I think there's going to be other cars involved. It's certainly easier for the other teams to make strides towards us than for us to make strides away.

"Both Penske cars will be strong, and both Ganassi cars. I think a couple of the Green cars will be strong, and one of the Panther cars."