Wheldon expects open Indy

The Briton, who won the race from 16th on the grid in 2005, will start on the outside of the front row this year and believes that in fact many teams are in with a shot at victory this weekend.

Penske have dominated practice so far, and Wheldon has been the only non-Penske runner to lead a day of practice this month. He believes plenty of cars are in with a shout.

"The main thing is we're very open-minded," Wheldon said. "You always have to be like that for such a long event.

"We've been working very, very hard all month to compete with the Penskes. I do feel we have been a couple of steps behind in terms of set-up. That's cost us a little bit of speed. But I do believe there's the time in the car we can be able to match them in qualifying pace.

"As far as race pace goes, we're very, very competitive. I don't just think it's the Ganassi cars and the Penske cars that are going to be quick.

"The Andretti Green Racing cars are going to be quick. I'm sure Fernandez, his team will be fast. There's a lot of different people that you expect to be quick at a race like this."