Conway gets first seat time since May incident

The crash during the late stages of the Indianapolis 500 is a distant thought for Mike Conway, who has focused on returning to the IZOD IndyCar Series since receiving the go-ahead to begin rehabilitation.

It's been a physically and mentally arduous nine-month journey, but Conway will reach one of his goals March 7 by slipping behind the wheel of an IZOD IndyCar Series car for acclimation laps on the Homestead-Miami Speedway road course. The testing day precedes the Open Test on March 14-15 at Barber Motorsports Park, where he'll join new teammates Marco Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Danica Patrick.

Andretti Autosport announced Feb. 1 that Conway would compete for the veteran IZOD IndyCar Series team for the full 2011 season.

"I'm not nervous at all; just excited to get back in the car," he said. "It's been since May since I've been in a proper car. I'm just excited. I can't wait to get things going, start working and really get things going. I've been in some karts and various motorized things, but there is nothing quite like the IndyCar, so I can't wait just to get in."

Conway recorded three top-10 finishes in six races in 2010, including a high of eighth (advancing 11 positions) in the opener on the street of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The 2011 season-opening Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is March 25-27.

"Working with this team has already been great," continued Conway, who has competed in 23 races over two seasons. "Everyone is so excited and so pumped up for the season to hit. It's really nice to receive that kind of feeling when you come to a new team. It's great. I can't thank all the guys enough for having that belief in me. Now we just need to go out there and start winning."