Wheldon on top at Phoenix

The Indy 500 champion turned heads by posting the fastest lap of the two-day test on the second day of running in his new Ganassi Racing Dallara Honda.

His new teammate, Scott Dixon, posted the second fastest lap and both drivers were faster than Bryan Herta's pole-winning lap last year at the same track.

Wheldon's ability to jump into his new mount and be immediately on the pace was the story of the first test of 2006. His lap of 20.1700 seconds (178.483 mph) knocked Dixon's lap of 20.2472 seconds from the top of the speed chart.

"There's a new lease on life," Wheldon said. "There are different views, different approaches, different opinions and a different atmosphere. That's all stuff you can learn from. It's not like I'm coming to a team that's never won before."

Penske teammates Helio Castroneves and Sam Hornish Jr also both lapped inside Herta's 2005 best.

Herta had the fifth-best lap on Wednesday - 176.216 mph in the No. 7 AGR Dallara Honda. Teammate Tony Kanaan, who has topped the timesheets on the first day, was sixth best at 175.342 mph in the No. 11 AGR Honda/Dallara machine.

Michael Andretti will test privately on Thursday at Phoenix in preparation for his return to the Indianapolis 500 in May, where he will line-up against his son Marco.

"I'm starting to get a little nervous that he's going to be quicker than me," Andretti said. "That's not good."

The IRL will hold another pre-season test on March 2-6 at Homestead-Miami Speedway before the season opener March 26 at Homestead.

Pos  Driver          Chassis    Speed     Laps
 1.  Wheldon         Dallara    178.483    120
 2.  Dixon           Dallara    177.802    164
 3.  Castroneves     Dallara    177.596    190
 4.  Hornish Jr      Dallara    177.239    127
 5.  Herta           Dallara    176.216    119
 6.  Kanaan          Dallara    175.342    103
 7.  Scheckter       Dallara    175.277    71 
 8.  Carpenter       Dallara    175.073    56 
 9.  Sharp           Panoz      174.760    125
10.  Matsuura        Dallara    174.360    105
11.  Franchitti      Dallara    174.252    87 
12.  Rice            Panoz      173.801    88 
13.  Patrick         Panoz      173.765    133
14.  Andretti        Dallara    173.614    95 
15.  Giaffone        Dallara    172.389    137
16.  Dana            Panoz      170.587    124