Two-time pole winner Franchitti fastest; pack right behind source: indycar.com / Dave Lewandowski Danica Patrick was impressed. Surrounded, but impressed with the IndyCar Series' Open Test at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. "No. 1, everybody seems very excited to have us back here," the Andretti Green Racing driver said. "Everybody is wanting autographs. They're excited. They brought their kids out, so it's obviously a great thing to come back here. We always want to be places where we're wanted." Teammate Dario Franchitti, a two-time Mid-Ohio pole winner with Team KOOL Green in the '90s, was impressed with the times/speeds on the 2.258-mile, 13-turn circuit. Franchitti topped the chart with a lap of 1 minute, 7.6667 seconds (120.130 mph) on the recently repaved course. With significantly less horsepower, a normally aspirated Honda Indy V-8 engine, no power to pass and no optional tires, he was only six-tenths of a second off the 2003 pole lap. "When you take the horsepower into consideration, I think (the times) were very impressive," said Franchitti, the IndyCar Series points leader. "And I think there is more to come. You'll see us even quicker when we come here to qualify. "I'm glad I had some experience because we missed the entire morning with some technical problems. So the day started badly and ended very well." Team Penske's Helio Castroneves, a two-time winner at Mid-Ohio, was 0.1004 of a second back. Franchitti's teammate, Marco Andretti, was third (1:07.9717; 119.591 mph). Vision Racing's Ed Carpenter posted a field-high 79 laps (of 978). It was the lone opportunity for the 18 driver/car combinations to test in advance of the Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio presented by Westfield Insurance on July 22. "I think we have confidence in our speed and our balance," said Andretti, who's looking forward to upcoming road course races after a string of bad luck on ovals. "I'm pretty confident in my race car. We made the tires last and we were still fast. We only ran two sets of tires and were still third fast."
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