Barber Test Wrap-Up

Sixteen drivers of the IndyCar Series (and their crews) spent Sunday and Monday shaking off the cobwebs and getting ready for the road/street course portions of the 2009 season at Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds AL. On Sunday an estimated 10,000+ fans gathered to watch them.

For an off-season test in what is traditionally the heart of NASCAR country, that is quite an impressive number! "For a test session, it's amazing the amount of people here," defending series champion Scott Dixon said. "There's definitely a huge fan base here. To have the (vendors) on the backstraight and all the people out on a test day, you don't normally see that stuff. It's fantastic."

The weather was good both days, and the drivers put in alot of laps with no major incidents (there were a few "minor" off-road excursions.) Dixon set the mark to beat on Sunday, with a best lap at 117.6+, with newcommer Robert Doornbos close behind on the charts. Monday saw all of the drivers improve their lap times over the previous day, with Team Penske driver Will Power (who's future in that seat may depend on the outcome of Helio's Castroneves' tax evasion trial) laying down a lap at 119.213.

“It was good," Power told reporters afterwards, "I haven't spent much time with this team, so I spent the two days gelling with my engineer and we're really working well together now. We found some good things in the car, and we found a car that suits me. We're happy and we'll be pretty confident going into St Pete."

The 2009 IndyCar Series season begins on Sunday, April 5 with a race on the streets (& part of the airport tarmac) of St. Petersburg FL; the first time in it's 14 year history that the year will not open on an oval.