INDIANAPOLIS – One of the most anticipated times of the year in the Verizon IndyCar Series is Opening Day for the Indianapolis 500. It’s when the Indianapolis Motor Speedway comes alive with the speed, noise and color of IndyCars beginning a nearly month long search for speed that will culminate with Race Day and the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”

This year’s Opening Day will be a bit different than the start of Indy 500 practice in the past. Instead of being labeled as a practice it’s an Open Test session for the new superspeedway Aero Kits that will be used by Chevrolet and Honda in this year’s Indy 500. And there won’t be days of practice immediately following Opening Day, either. IMS will be closed Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and reopen on Thursday with the cars running in the opposite direction up the long frontstraight before the hard right-hand turn that begins the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course as practice begins for the May 9 Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis.

Teams began testing the street and road course Aero Kit since March 13 and through the first four races of the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series season the Aero Kits remain a work in progress. The superspeedway Aero Kit is a much sleeker, cleaner looking design than the street and road course kit and that should help speeds increase between 3-4 miles per hour this year at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“Some of the components of the Aero Kit on the road courses carry over so it’s not a complete kit but you will see different wings, very small rear wings and the radiator winglet area will look a little different along with front wings,” said INDYCAR President of Competition and Operations Derrick Walker. “Given what you are trying to do on the superspeedway it needs to be a cleaner look because you want minimum drag and don’t need all the downforce. On the road course configuration they are loaded up to get much downforce and they don’t worry about drag as much.

“When you see them it’s not the final Aero Kit. I’m sure both manufacturers will hold a little bit in store and keep it for qualifying. They aren’t going to show their hands right away.”

Walker believes the reasonable expectation of speed increase depends on the weather. If the weather is cool he believes that could increase speeds up to 4 miles per hour on a lap. That means a top speed could be in the 234 mile per hour range.

“If the temperature is very hot and greasy I don’t think you will see the speeds that high,” Walker said. “We focus on Aero Kits but the engines each year get a little bit better so we will see some more power from the engines. When you talk about Aero Kits Honda doesn’t look like it’s as consistent or balanced as it needs to be to go faster. That’s what you need to look at as far as performance. It’s taken some time for them to sort it out and hopefully that is all it is.”

Steve Eriksen is the chief operating officer and vice president of Honda Performance Development and is confident the Honda Aero Kit will be quite competitive with Chevrolet’s product.

“It’s a different focus because Indianapolis is a very different type of circuit and our focus is to be there at the end at get the checkered flag at Indy,” Eriksen said. “Our concentration has been on the race spec to make it the most race able configuration. It starts with an understanding of where we think we will be on engine power because you have to create the kit that matches that engine power. Thankfully, we’ve been progressing well to meet the target. So you will see a kit that is a lot simpler, a lot more trimmed out with less aero elements all over the car. The engine covers and sidepods will be the same and the rear wing will be completely new – not what you see now.

“May 3 will be an interesting day. I’ll be very interested to see how our kit and the competitor’s kit pans out.”