After 1,331 miles of testing over two days, Daytona International Speedway’s hosting of the IndyCar Series was deemed a unanimous success by drivers, manufacturer representatives, IndyCar Series officials and track officials.

The four-hour second-day session wrapped up with a few bent suspensions from drivers with personal speed tests around the 2.73-mile, 10-turn course that incorporated Turns 3 and 4 (31 degrees of banking) and the frontstretch (18 degrees of banking). But the work was effectively and smoothly accomplished.

“You can see we’re pushing harder today because a lot of people are spinning more,” said Andretti Green Racing’s Tony Kanaan, one of the four IndyCar Series champions (plus Vitor Meira) participating in the test. “The track guys are having a lot of work with those cones. We’re still keeping up the work for Honda with the new engine and evaluating the track.”

Kanaan’s No. 11 Team 7-Eleven car and the No. 6 Marlboro Team Penske car driven by reigning IndyCar Series champion Sam Hornish Jr. were equipped with the 3.5-liter Honda Indy V-8 engine that will be used by the entire field in 2007. They turned more than 600 miles using the engine, which is powered by 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol. The IndyCar Series is the first in motorsports to embrace a renewable fuel source.

“We came away from the test pretty satisfied,” said Roger Griffiths, race team technical leader for Honda Performance Development. “There still is some ‘fine-tuning’ to accomplish with the various engine controls, but all in all this was an excellent first test for the 2007 spec Honda 3.5-liter IndyCar engine and 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol.  We were able to run a lot of laps over the two days, and gathered enough information in the first day to make some initial software changes overnight. We applied those changes today on the ethanol cars driven by Tony (Kanaan) and Sam (Hornish Jr.) and saw further improvements, and that’s always encouraging.”

On-track performance supported dynamometer testing of the marriage, and Firestone engineers reported no issues with the Firehawk racing radials. The engine, increased in displacement from 3.0 liters this past season, will be implemented with the goal of longer life between rebuilds (1,500-plus miles) and more torque for the demands of road- and street-course racing.

“It feels like it has more power now,” Hornish said. “Everything has felt really good so far. It definitely has more power off the corners. I think it’s going to make things a lot more exciting with having that little more torque in the lower end and that opportunity for the wheels to spin, so you’re really going to have to monitor that with your foot. You just can’t drop the throttle.

“I think they’re trying to keep the top end the same so at places like Texas and Indy we’ll run similar speeds as last year. But at the road courses we’ll be faster. I think it will be good.”

That the modified AMA circuit passed muster with IndyCar Series officials and drivers could lead to a second warm-weather testing venue. The IndyCar Series has tested on the Homestead-Miami Speedway road course the past few years.

DAY 2 TESTING NOTEBOOK:

Crunch: Sam Hornish Jr. brought out the only extended full-course yellow in the morning session when the No. 6 Marlboro Team Penske car spun entering the chicane on the backstretch and backed in to a tire barrier. Hornish said he didn’t expect how aerodynamic changes would affect the car entering the high-speed chicane.

There was an extended caution period after Vitor Meira’s No. 4 Panther Racing car made contact with the SAFER Barrier exiting the chicane. Both drivers were checked at the infield care center and cleared to drive.

“We were having a good day finding out new things for our road course setup, and this last change was a little bigger than I thought,” Meira said. “Coming out of the second chicane, which is kind of bumpy, our Lincoln Tech car stepped out and spun into the outside of the oval wall. It’s unfortunate that we crashed because we had two good things to try and now it looks like we’re going to have to wait and try them later.”