Wheldon has new car, team

The defending champion moved to Ganassi Racing after last season.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Defending Indianapolis 500 and IRL series champion Dan Wheldon is back to work with a new car and a new team.
Wheldon moved from Andretti Green Racing to the Ganassi Racing after last season and got his first chance to drive one of the team's new Honda-powered Dallaras during the IRL's initial test session this week at Phoenix International Raceway.
All 15 of the league's full-time teams participated in the program.
"We just focused on some stuff that we need to work on for the short oval," Wheldon said. "Obviously, the Dallara is new to the team. Everybody at Chip Ganassi Racing has made me feel welcome. We just have some work to do to speed up the learning process for everybody, but overall it was a good first day."
The Ganassi team, with Wheldon and teammate Scott Dixon, and Team Penske, with Helio Castroneves and Sam Hornish Jr., switched to Honda in anticipation of Toyota canceling its affiliation with the IRL at the end of last season. Chevrolet also withdrew at the end of the season, leaving Honda the only engine supplier for the open wheel series.
"We've been trying to work through the biggest projects that we have with the new car. We're not running for time right now," Dixon said. "The car has been really consistent and the new package with Honda and Dallara has been nice, so far."
Season opener
The IRL will open the new season with the Toyota Indy 300 on March 26 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida.
Besides Wheldon and Dixon, other drivers testing at Phoenix included Castroneves and Hornish; Andretti Green teammates Dario Franchitti, Bryan Herta, Tony Kanaan and 18-year-old rookie Marco Andretti; and Rahal Letterman teammates Danica Patrick and Buddy Rice.
Patrick, the Indy and IRL rookie of the year last season, said Wheldon told her several months ago her second year would be a lot different from her rookie season.
"I definitely felt a lot more comfortable today than I did when I was here last March," Patrick said.
Marco Andretti, the son of team owner Michael Andretti and grandson of Mario Andretti, replaced Wheldon with Andretti Green for this season. He also took part in private tests at Sebring, Fla., last week.
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