CHANGES ABOUND AS IRL SEASON KICKS OFF AT HOMESTEAD-MIAMI.

Byline: TIM HADDOCK Motor Sports

When the Indy Racing League IndyCar series starts Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida, the most significant change will be seeing Dan Wheldon driving for Chip Ganassi.

Not-so-significant: Seeing Gene Simmons of KISS and Carmelo Anthony of the Denver Nuggets as part owners of the Indy car entry for P.J. Chesson's Hemelgarn Racing team.

Somewhere in between will be the debut of Marco Andretti, son of Michael Andretti and grandson of Mario Andretti, and the highly anticipated breakthrough victory for Danica Patrick.

While there are no guarantees of success for either Andretti or Patrick, they will garner much of the attention in the IRL this season. Wheldon may have to break his record of six victories to take some of that attention away.

Wheldon, who won the Miami race last year, switched teams in the off-season. He won three of the first four races of the year with Andretti Green Racing and went on to became the first driver to win the Indianapolis 500 and the IRL championship in the same season.

Then he left Andretti Green's four-car powerhouse for Ganassi's two-car Team Target. Now Ganassi has two IRL champions, with Wheldon and Scott Dixon.

Andretti Green has one IRL champion, in Tony Kanaan, and a team of drivers that combined to win five of the 17 races last year.

Wheldon's move to Ganassi opened the door at Andretti Green for Marco Andretti to race in the IndyCar Series.

But that was about the biggest change in drivers in the IRL.

What might be more significant is who is not in the IRL this year.

Honda, which has its Honda Performance Development based in Santa Clarita, will be the sole engine provider to the 20 drivers and 11 teams entered in the IRL IndyCar Series.

Toyota and Chevrolet, which provided engines for teams last year, are no longer a part of the series.

With everyone, in theory, using the same equipment, and having the same power, the IRL could become a drivers' series, in which instinct and reflexes will become more important than horsepower and downforce. The teams with the best drivers could rise the to the top.

``Penske, Ganassi, AGR - those seem to be the three teams to beat,'' said Andretti Green Racing driver Bryan Herta, a Hart High of Newhall graduate. ``There's going to be more competition this year.''

Here is a look at the top teams and drivers expected to compete in the IRL this year:

Andretti Green Racing: The four-car team has produced the past two IRL champions. Wheldon won in 2005, Kanaan in 2004. Herta, who lives in Valencia, has won two races in his three years with the team, including last year's race at Michigan International Speedway. Kanaan and Dario Franchitti won two races apiece last year. Franchitti won the California Speedway event, perhaps the last IRL race to run at the Fontana track. Marco Andretti enters the most successful team in the IRL with high expectations.

Target Chip Ganassi Racing: Wheldon was the winningest driver in the IRL last year with six - all with Andretti Green. Dixon was able to break the winning Andretti Green stranglehold last year by taking the road course event at Watkins Glen in New York for his only win of the year. It was Dixon's first win since June 28, 2003, when he won the race at Richmond International Raceway in Virginia.

Marlboro Team Penske: Sam Hornish Jr. has two IRL championships to his credit, both coming while driving for Panther Racing. Helio Castroneves has two Indy 500 wins, both coming driving for Roger Penske. The pair combined for three wins in 2005. Hornish won two, at Phoenix International Raceway and The Milwaukee Mile. But the Phoenix race is off the schedule.

`'It's one of the hardest tracks to race at from a driver's standpoint,'' Hornish said.

Castroneves won the race at Richmond.

Rahal Letterman Racing: Danica Patrick won IRL rookie of the year honors in 2005. Buddy Rice won the Indy 500 in 2004. But no Rahal Letterman Racing driver won a race last year. Patrick did post three poles in her rookie campaign and the racing world is waiting for her to win a race. Her teammates, Rice and Paul Dana, have more potential, but both have suffered near-career-ending injuries. Dana, driving for Hemelgarn Racing, had his season end last year after a crash during practice for the Indy 500. Rice wasn't able to defend his Indy 500 win with a similar crash during practice.

Vision Racing: Owned in part by IRL founder Tony George and ``Grey's Anatomy'' star Patrick Dempsey, the team has a proven winner in Tomas Sheckter as one of its drivers. It also has Ed Carpenter, George's stepson, with a career-best eighth-place finish at Kentucky Speedway. Scheckter won the race at Texas Motor Speedway last year driving for Panther Racing.

Delphi Fernandez Racing: Scott Sharp won the race at Kentucky Speedway, the ninth of his IRL career and his first since April 13, 2003 at Twin Ring Motegi, Japan. Team owner Adrian Fernandez owns part of Sharp's team and Kosuke Matsuura's Super Aguri Fernandez team. Matsuura won the IRL rookie of the year award in 2004 and his career-best finish is third place at Infineon Raceway last year.

``We reached a great stride in the latter half of 2005 and continued that progress in off-season testing, and I am looking forward to picking up where we left off,'' Sharp said. ``The competition is going to be the most intense we have seen with Honda moving to be the universal engine supplier and the series as a whole becoming more equal. Our goal is to be a championship contender this year, and I'm extremely optimistic that this is going to a great year for us.''

Panther Racing: Vitor Meira, probably the best driver never to win a race, finished second twice last year driving for Rahal Letterman Racing. He was runner-up in the Indy 500 and second at Kentucky Speedway. The year before that, he was second at Richmond and Texas. In 46 starts, he has led 175 laps and won two poles.

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