While they were in the neighborhood for the 38th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach (well, the 390 miles between Sonoma, Calif., and Long Beach is a lot closer than Birmingham, Ala., and Long Beach) this weekend, 13 IZOD IndyCar Series drivers took advantage of a day of testing on the Infineon Raceway road course April 9.

Honda- and Chevrolet-powered teams on the scenic course:
• Ryan Briscoe, Helio Castroneves, Will Power (Team Penske)
• Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon (Target Chip Ganassi Racing)
• Charlie Kimball and Graham Rahal (Chip Ganassi Racing)
• Marco Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe (Andretti Autosport)
• Rubens Barrichello, Tony Kanaan, E.J. Viso (KV Racing Technology)

Video: Dixon on the course

The daylong event was open to the public, which had the opportunity to interact with the drivers during the noontime break.

Franchitti posted the quickest lap at 1 minute, 17.2 seconds over the 12-turn, 2.303-mile road course. Kimball (1:17.4) and Rahal (1:17.5) followed, while Viso (1:17.80) and Kanaan (1:17.84) rounded out the top five. All times were reported by the drivers.

“I like this track very much,” said Barrichello, who was sixth quickest (1:17.88).  “It’s very difficult with the blind apexes.  It’s good that I can test again, and every time I’m improving.  A track like this is very good and it teaches me a lot.”

The Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma is Aug. 24-26. GET TICKETS

Info to go for the race weekend in Long Beach:

Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach entrant list || Practice Group 1 || Schedule

Pit lane assignments || Tickets, event info || Firestone Indy Lights entrant list