Patrick finished a career-best seventh overall last year and recorded a career-best race finish of second at Belle Isle, but the pressure remains to prove that she is as much race winner as pin-up - a task that may have been made tougher with the addition of the Champ Car refugees.
"This is the most excited I've been going into a season, and the most comfortable I've felt," she insists, "This year, I feel like excitement is sort of maybe number one to nervousness - where normally, every other year, I was more nervous than anything. I really feel like I'm becoming some sort of an old person in racing. This is my fourth year, so I'm going into this one instead of some of the others saying 'look, if I want a shot at winning championships, you've got to get out of the box fast'."
Andretti claims to be on a title mission this season, his third, while Mutoh has shown promise in testing but remains unproven at this level.
"This is a championship-winning team, and the #27 is the champion number - that means a lot to me, and for the Japanese and for Honda," the newcomer says, "These are very good team-mates to have, I can learn a lot from them and have no pressure at all."
Kanaan is aware, however, that AGR is never really at home in the opener.
"For some reason, we've never been able to get the car quite right at Homestead," he admits, "We were quick last year and I think we made some progress, so we have something to build on. I think it was a great idea to change the race to a night race - and it certainly makes the car set-up even more important."
The role of pre-race favourite - and main rival to AGR over the course of the year - will go to Target Chip Ganassi Racing, for whom Dan Wheldon has won the last three Homestead races and Scott Dixon came closest to denying Franchitti the 2007 title.
![Dan Wheldon - Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Marco Andretti - Andretti Green Racing, Homestead Open Testing [Pic credit: IndyCar Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/410802.jpg)
