IndyCar Series Open Test underway

The IndyCar Series opened the 2009 season with an Open Test at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Twenty drivers began a five-hour practice session at 4 p.m. EST on the 1.5-mile oval, including four past champions, nine race winners and four rookies. The 20 cars and drivers on track is the most at an Open Test since the Test in the West Feb. 6, 2002 at California Speedway.

2008 champion Scott Dixon paced the field at the dinner break with a best lap of 25.2919 seconds, 211.372 mph. Dixon recorded the first of six victories in 2008 at the facility.

“Homestead is such a particular track," 2004 series champion Tony Kanaan said. “Although it’s an oval, you can’t test at Homestead for Richmond, you can’t test at Homestead for Iowa, so it’s definitely just to get the team motion going, the team working together, teammates adapting to new engineers, different engineers, different stuff that we learned over the course of the winter. It’s going to be great just to be back on the racetrack."

Testing continues until 10 p.m. EST and resumes from 4-10 p.m. Feb. 25.