On Monday, Will Power topped the speed charts in his No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet with a lap of 01:07.6492 seconds around the 2.3 mile road course. Today, Power once again would top the speed charts, this time with a lap of 1 minute, 7.0608 seconds.
“Coming back to Barber, hopefully we found a happy place,” Power commented. “Obviously the temperature will be a lot different, and I think that brings out imbalances in the car. It was so cold today and there was so much grip, I think it was hard to get good reads on changes. We’ll see where we go and head to St. Pete, it’s going to be really tight.”
Test was delayed both days due to fog and mist throughout hte morning, but the second day certainly showed the level of competition in the Verizon IndyCar Series.
Justin Wilson was second quickest in his Dale Coyne Racing Honda, four-hundreths off of Power’s quick time.
“I think it’s great, I just want to know where it puts me on the grid for the race here,” Wilson commented. “Obviously nowhere, so you just have to take it with a pinch of salt. We like the progress that we’ve made to the car and the work that the team is doing. It’s a complete new set of guys, working with Michael Cannon, that just keeps getting better and better every time we run.”
Defending Series Champion Scott Dixon was third fastest, followed by Takuma Sato and Ryan Briscoe. After running a part-time schedule last year, Briscoe will run the full schedule this year for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Helio Castroneves was sixth quickest, followed by Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Hinchcliffe, Juan Pablo Montoya and Simon Pagenaud. Montoya, entering his first season of open-wheel racing since 2006, used the two days of testing to get to comfortable with his new ride.
“We got behind the track there a little bit at the end, but overall I’m really happy,” Montoya commented. “The Verizon Team Penske did a good job. I feel that I’m ready and looking forward to St. Pete.”
Tony Kanaan was 11th quickest in his new ride with Chip Ganassi, followed by rookie Jack Hawksworth, Charle Kimball, Sebastian Bourdais and Marco Andretti. Andretti is one of the early championship favourites going into the season following a consistent year last season.
“Unfortunately we didn’t make a lot of progress the past two days,”Andretti summarized his test session. “A lot of the answers we found today, we’ll have to retest and come back when it’s hotter. We’re really questioning a lot of our reads just because of the low temperatures. Obviously we’re not really pleased with the pace, but we’re really making some strides with the Honda side…the drivability side – I’m really pleased with, we just need to get the balance right for when we bring the Snapple car back next month.””
The 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season kicks off next weekend with St. Petersburg.
