INDYCARNATION

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Inwardly, Will Power cringed when he was referred to as “street racing king” following the opening rounds of practice for the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. It’s an apt description, though the driver of the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske would like to expand that to “overall racing king.”

That might eventually tag along, but with the first four IZOD IndyCar Series races on street/road courses it accentuates Power’s prowess.

Power, who won the season opener in Brazil two weeks ago, topped the lap time chart on another temporary street circuit in St. Pete in preparation for the three rounds of qualifications March 27 with a best of 1 minute, 2.3200 seconds (103.979 mph).

“We are getting the car better each session,” said Power who is competing in his first full season with the team. “After this run, the car is more like what I like to drive. It feels good. There is a long weekend ahead of us, with weather and everything. But I am feeling good going into (qualifications).”

Power started and finished sixth on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn course last year in his debut with Team Penske. He went on to start from the pole in the next race – the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach – and won at Edmonton (an airport course).

“I'm not sure what it is about street circuits, but there's a lot more challenges on a street circuit than there are on ovals or road courses with uneven surfaces, different surfaces grip level wise, and you've got a wall,” he said. “So you can't make a mistake. You've got to creep up on it all weekend. The track is constantly changing because the rubber goes down over the weekend because it's just a street during the normal day. It's just all these little details that count to be quick.”

Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon also was quick – second on the lap chart with a best of 1:03.0299 (102.808). Dreyer & Reinbold Racing’s Justin Wilson, who finished third in last year’s race, was third overall (1:03.0576) and Andretti Autosport’s Tony Kanaan (1:03.0615) was fourth. Teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay, who was runner-up in both the Brazil and ’09 St. Pete races, was fifth overall (1:03.0763).

“We had quite a few issues in the morning session and the second session didn’t start too well,” Dixon said. “We ended up second, but we are still a long ways from Will. (Teammate) Dario (Franchitti) hit the wall and I was expecting that he would have been pretty quick as well. We have a lot of work to do. Hopefully we can carry some of the momentum from today into tomorrow and make some good changes.”

KV Racing Technology teammates E.J. Viso (1:03.0890) and Takuma Sato (1:03.0930) were sixth and seventh, respectively, while Marco Andretti (1:03.2866) was eighth. Two-time St. Pete winner Helio Castroneves (1:03.2884) was ninth and Graham Rahal, who is competing for Sarah Fisher Racing this weekend, was 10th (1:03.3220).