Double Indy Racing League champion Sam Hornish Jr posted the fastest speed of the first day of testing for the 88th Indianapolis 500, but was closely followed by two-time race winner - and Penske team-mate - Helio Castroneves.
Hornish recorded a best time of 41.0451secs (219.271 mph) in the afternoon session, while Castroneves chased him hard with a 41.0480secs (219.256) effort. Privateer owner-driver Robby Gordon was third fastest on the day.
"It was a good day for the Marlboro Team Penske guys," Hornish said, "We tried to work on the car all day long and make it a little bit better. It's a long race out here and you have to have a good-handling car."
The former Panther Racing star admitted that preparations for the showpiece race had been made more complex by the mandatory introduction of new three-litre engines, but reckoned that the reigning Indy 500 winners were getting on top of the 'problem'.
"Everybody is kind of up in the air with what they're supposed to be doing because of the new engine right now," Hornish confirmed, "It makes it tough, and we spent a little bit more time out there than we wanted to today. But I felt like we got a lot accomplished and got through a lot of things."
Gordon was equally satisfied with the work his eponymous team had managed to put in on day one of the delayed test, even though it had not been a smooth introduction to IRL team management for the NASCAR regular.
"I'm pretty happy - with new cars, if you can come up here and sit next to these guys, it's definitely a good start," he said of accompanying the Penske duo to the post-session press conference, "Our car is still raw painted and got some decent-sized gaps in the seams and stuff, so we feel we probably have another mile-an-hour, mile-and-a-half just in the paint job and trimming the car out.
