Fernandez & Nakano make gains in day two of test.

Fernandez Racing completed day two of a three-day test at Firebird International Raceway today, with teammates Adrian Fernandez and Shinji Nakano each making substantial progress on the 1.2-mile road course.

"We had another good day," said Tom Anderson, owner and team manager. "We had an opportunity to work on a lot of things and are still making big changes. We also started to do a little bit of pit stop practice towards the end of the day, which we will continue tomorrow. It's starting to look like a race team."

Nakano posted the quickest time of the day, covering 148 miles (123 laps) in his #51 Alpine Honda/Reynard to post a best lap time of 46.8 (seconds). Fernandez logged 105 trouble-free laps aboard the #51 Tecate/Quaker State/Telmex Honda/Reynard, recording a best lap time of 47.0 (seconds).

"We improved the car a lot today," said Nakano. "This morning we worked on setup, and on fuel consumption this afternoon. I have to learn this for the race from Adrian. The fuel consumption was much better today. The gap between Adrian and myself is much closer."

"Martin (Pari, Nakano's engineer) and I are still learning quite a lot about working together, and also the new car and new engine. It is going very well. We also worked on pit stop practice which is very important."

"Another good day," said Fernandez, who will be the only owner/driver in the CART field this season. "We put a lot of good miles on both cars, worked on a lot of things for race weekend, and made a lot of changes. It was the second day in a row that we were right there."

"Shinji's trying different things and I'm trying different things. Shinji went very quick today. We're going through a lot of things that we haven't been able to do in the past, which is good. It's going very well."