Day one of the Indianapolis group test passed off largely without a hitch, and it was established circuit pacesetter Penske which led the way from Robby Gordon's impressive privateer effort.
Two-time IRL series champion Sam Hornish set the pace from Penske team-mate - and double Indy 500 winner - Helio Castroneves, with Gordon close behind after his first day of action as an owner-driver in the championship.
MC:
Top three of the day - Sam Hornish Jr, Helio Castroneves, Robby Gordon. Sam and Helio, obviously, driving for Marlboro Team Penske, and Robby Gordon driving for Team Gordon, in the Meijer-sponsored car. Sam, you're getting ready for your fifth 500, Helio for your fourth, and Robby for your tenth - is that right?
Robby Gordon:
You're making me look old.
MC:
So Robby would be the senior-most member in terms of starts here at Indy. Speeds, top speed, Sam, who turned 37 laps this afternoon, registered 219.271mph, Helio, who turned 23 laps, reached 219.256, and Robby, who turned a total of 24 laps all day, 218.921. Let's get a statement from each of you before you take questions. Sam, first off, the car had to be pretty good, but how was the weather, specifically the wind?
Sam Hornish Jr:
It was a good day for the Marlboro Team Penske guys. We tried to work on the car all day long and make it a little bit better. It's a long race out here. You have to have a good-handling car, and everybody is up in the air with what they are supposed to be doing because of the new engine and the new rules packages for the car. But they were still kind of searching right now but makes it tough. We probably spent a little bit more time out there than probably we wanted to today, but felt like we accomplished and got to do a lot of things and felt pretty good about our car.
Helio Castroneves:
Pretty much the same. Unfortunately, the weather was a little it bit tough, a little bit windy, but felt it was a good way, especially the opposite side way, going into turn one, that's when things get scary. Right now, seems to be okay, as Sam said, everybody did a hell of a job, you know, we're just trying to make sure that the basic set-up, take like what's not good out of the picture because, when you go back here, we have a whole month to try to do that. Obviously, the weather is going to change, and we're just trying to accomplish a good base, and obviously, the month of May, it's going to be important.
RG:
I'm pretty happy with the new cars, and, if you can come up here and sit next to these guys, it's definitely a good start. Our car is still raw painted and got some decent-sized gaps in the seams and stuff, and so we feel we probably have another mile-an-hour, mile-and-a-half just in the paint job, and obviously, trim the car out. So really pleased with how the Chevrolet is running. I think both of these guys are in Dallaras, too. The Dallaras seem real strong. The package is a little bit different than when we raced last year. But for the first time being back in an open-wheel car in a year, I'm pretty pleased.
Q:
Robby, you got up to speed pretty quick this afternoon, I think you were pretty well up to top speed, had a little fire, put it out and got [the speeds] up a little higher...
RG:
The fire, what we did, new cars, with new transmissions, we try to do an insulation check and try to keep the car under 100 miles an hour and get all the gears set. That's something AJ [Foyt] taught me years ago. I don't know if it makes a difference, but new car, the luck he's had at the Speedway here, figure better follow in those footsteps a little bit. When we did that, we had a little too much blocker on the radiator and didn't get any air through there, so we burned - there was some tape, I guess you could call it, heat tape, which is supposed to help the car, but we caught the glue on fire on the heat tape. Didn't hurt anything on the car, just a little smoke and burned up some tape. Had to put more tape on, took a bit of blocker off the thing and went a little faster to get some air through the car. No real issues, just getting, how do you say it, new-car blues, stuff like that.
Q:
Can the three of you just talk a little bit about what you felt like with the new engines out there?
![Robby Gordon, Andretti Green Racing, Indianapolis Motor Speedway 2003. [IMS Photo Kay Nichols]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/56697.jpg )
