By Andrew Charman

The Indy Racing League is in virgin territory this week, though for many of the drivers the surroundings will be familiar. The all-oval series makes its first ever visit to the one-mile asphalt oval known to all as the Milwaukee Mile, but all the ChampCar refugees in the field have taken on its unique challenges many times.

Question is, who will become IRL's first Milwaukee champion, or more precisely, will it be anyone else but a Rahal-Letterman car? Buddy Rice and his team-mate Vitor Meira totally dominated last weekend's race at Nashville, just as they had the previous round in Kansas, but they will be all the more determined to win this weekend. Because while the Kansas race brought a one-two finish, poor pitwork at Nashville led to a dramatic last few laps and a poor midfield finish. More importantly, it let in Tony Kanaan, the Andretti-Green man taking another win and extending his championship lead. Kanaan needs to be stopped, and quickly.

According to Rice, the Nashville result was tough. “We dominated there on Saturday night, between me and Vitor we led 165 of the 200 laps but unfortunately not the last one. I'm looking forward to going to Milwaukee – it's a classic old track that has seen every big-name racer compete there over the years.” As for Kanaan, he scotches talk of championships. “It's far too early to be thinking of that,” he says.

On the evidence of qualifying it's going to be battle royal at Milwaukee. For much of the session the tale looked familiar, with the two Rahal-Letterman G Force-Hondas up front, though again with Meria setting the pace with pole position, Rice alongside. But then Kanaan went out as one of the final qualifiers in his Andretti-Green Dallara-Toyota, and split the two Rahal cars.

One driver that will be very keen to stop Kanaan and Rice will be Sam Hornish Jr. Penske's star recruit has had a frustrating season since winning the opening race back in February, but at Nashville he came very close to victory, only a very solid last-lap block by Kanaan keeping the Marlboro car behind. And Hornish has personal reasons to star at Milwaukee – this track is a special place for the Hornish family, and the venue where Sam's parents spent their first date together. “Two bus-loads of folks are coming along so we should have a lot of support,” Sam said this week. And just to make the script even more compelling, Sam has put his Penske into fourth spot, just ahead of team-mate Helio Castroneves.

With no IRL record, this is a weekend for setting markers, and Dario Franchitti would be more than happy if Milwaukee marked the turning point of his season. He's proved he's quick in IRL, and if his Andretti-Green Dallara-Toyota holds together or he manages to miss the cars crashing in front of him, he can't be ignored as a victory prospect. He sits in seventh spot, close enough to the sharp end to make a difference.

Dario's team-mate Dan Wheldon wants to be IRL's first British champion, and until Tony Kanaan put his recent strong run together was looking good to do just that. Now he needs to stop his team-mate and regain the initiative. He knows Milkwaukee too, having tested there but admits it proved a tough day. “If a car can handle, it will have the advantage here,” he says, and it appears in qualifying at least he hasn't found the handling secret – his is the slowest of the Andretti-Green cars, starting17th.

Reigning champion Scott Dixon's hopes for a change of luck at Milwaukee don't seem to be bearing fruit either. His Target Chip Ganassi G Force-Toyota has not been close to victory lane this season, and after qualifying his crew had their work cut out, Scott finding the wall hard in turn four. Luckily he had already set his time, but it's a lowly 14th on the grid.