It was a day of rejuvenation for the Verizon IndyCar Series on Tuesday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as testing for the 2018 Dallara chassis was completed without any major issues.

The sleek, new design of the universal aero kit created a car that looked like it was fast just standing still on pit lane. The lower profile car produces its downforce from the undertray of the Dallara chassis and that means goodbye to the ugly, bulky, cumbersome wings and winglets that made the “Era of Aero” a complicated exercise that produced a car design that many fans and drivers didn’t like.

It also split the field in terms of competition as Chevrolet had a decided aerodynamic edge in 2016 before Honda caught up in 2016 and 2017.

That won’t be an issue in 2018, as both Honda and Chevrolet will use the same aerodynamic pieces on its car. Instead of a competition of which manufacturer had the best aero, it’s back to which brand has the best engine and most horsepower.

Except for a few minor gremlins that had to be corrected earlier in the day with an electronics box on the Honda and a wiring loom issue on the Chevrolet, test drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Oriol Servia were each able to run more than 100 laps in their race cars.

Montoya, a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, drove the Chevrolet test car prepared by Team Penske. Servia, an IndyCar Series veteran, was behind the wheel in the Honda test car prepared by Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.

The data collected in the test belongs to IndyCar and speeds were not released. But stopwatches and other calculations estimated both cars reached the 220 miles per hour barrier around the 2.5-mile IMS oval.

The test went so well that it ended a few minutes before the scheduled 5 p.m. Eastern Time closing. With all the boxes on IndyCar's checklist completed, Wednesday’s scheduled test was canceled. Testing resumes next Tuesday with the road course configuration at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. It was a day that rejuvenated the drivers, who finally have the type of race car they wanted where the downforce is produced from the bottom of the instead of the top. That will create less turbulence and allows the cars to run closer together nose-to-tail. It was a day that rejuvenated the fans as a large crowd at the south end of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway infield watched the test on the spectator mounds inside Turn 2. Many of these fans had been begging for a better-looking Indy car for years and the current design is reminiscent of the cars that ran in CART and the Indianapolis 500 in the 1990s while incorporating a futuristic look into the design. And it was a day that rejuvenated the series, coming just two days after NASCAR’s Brickyard 400 turned into a demolition derby held at the same race track where Tuesday’s test was staged. The comparison between the two forms of racing that have been on track at the Speedway in the past 72 hours couldn’t have been more stark. “We were pleased because it matched up with our numbers that we predicted in wind tunnel and CFD so we were very happy with that,” Bill Pappas, IndyCar's vice president of Competition and Race Engineering, told Autoweek. “It just took one or two runs for each of the teams to get comfortable to work through the list that we had. Oriol Servia puts the Honda through its paces on Tuesday. Chris Owens

“My favorite moment was to see the car run. That’s what we wanted. It ran well and both drivers seem to think the car is comfortable. To me this is like having a child. This is my first time being part of designing a car. Dallara did a great job helping us. You hold your breath until the first competitive laps are run and listen to the driver’s feedback. This should help keep IndyCar racing the best in the world. I think after today I might have a nice Kentucky Bourbon.”

Pappas said the checklist was very short and it culminated with a couple full-tank runs.

IndyCar president of Competition and Operations Jay Frye was very satisfied with the outcome of the test and its potential for the future.

“The fact we aren’t coming back for a test on Wednesday is a good sign for how well we did today,” Frye said. “It was pretty spectacular that Dallara had all the parts produced, bolted on the car and it went out and ran is pretty spectacular the way the car ran out of the box today.

“We came with a plan and a test matrix so I would give this test a B-plus.”

Frye must be a tough grader because most everyone else involved with the test was very pleased with its outcome and what it means for IndyCar’s future.

“I think we’re off to a good start,” Frye said.

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