BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- So what was gleaned from the two-day IZOD IndyCar Series Open Test at Barber Motorsports Park with the season-opening Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg staring down teams?

• It was great to get back in the car and pile up laps. As James Hinchcliffe, who was second-quick in the afternoon session March 13, relayed: "The problem with such a long offseason and very little time to test is it gives engineers like six months to sit in a box and come up with crazy ideas. Then you only have like three days to try and get through all these things that they have dreamed up."
• Much was accomplished but much remains to test and improve.
• Closeness of the field hasn't dissipated based on lap times of the four sessions on the 2.38-mile, 17-turn road course.
• There will be some surprises at the top of the scoring pylon.

"It's as competitive as ever," said Hinchcliffe, entering his second season with Andretti Autosport in the Chevrolet-powered No. 27 GoDaddy.com car.

Click it: Session 4 results | Combined session results

For the second consecutive day, Will Power topped the time chart in the Chevrolet-powered No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car with a best lap of 1 minute, 7.1329 seconds -- more than 3 seconds quicker than the 2012 pole time in the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at the venue by teammate Helio Castroneves.

"Good start for the spring training. I think we got some good stuff to come back here for the race," Power said. "It’s just phenomenal how tight it is up front all the way through the field, and also just how fast these cars are around here. It’s just unbelievable."

The sentiment was shared by teammate AJ Allmendinger, who was testing in the No. 2 IZOD car for his projected IZOD IndyCar Series debut on April 5-7 at Barber.

"These Chevy engines are fast when you look at the best two times. Now it is my job to start getting in front of the car and learn how to turn that speed into better lap times," he said. "Can't say enough how much talent and depth the field has. Love it. Everyone needs to watch this year. Will be great racing."

Fourteen of the 28 driver-car combinations over the two days posted their best lap times in Session 4. There were 1,084 laps completed during the test.

Hinchcliffe checked in with a best lap of 1:07.3839, while Justin Wilson challenged for the top with a lap of 1:07.4996 in the Honda-powered No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing entry. Scott Dixon was fourth (1:07.6872) in the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car, and Takuma Sato posted the fifth-quickest time (1:07.7534) of the sunny but cool afternoon in the No. 14 ABC Supply Co. car for A.J. Foyt Racing.

In the morning session, new KV Racing Technology teammates Tony Kanaan and Simona de Silvestro were in the top five. Kanaan, driving the No. 11 KV Racing Technology-SH car, would up fourth-quick overall (1:075478). De Silvestro, driving the No. 78 Nuclear Clean Energy car, was 11th in the afternoon session and 12th overall.

"It's a good feeling to go into the first race of the season after a productive test like this," Kanaan said. "Being here for two days gave us the ability to sort out the small bugs that we had on the first outing and work through our full test schedule. We made some good progress with the car, the new Firestone tires are working great and our Chevy engine was flawless. I'm ready for the green flag in St. Pete."

That will fly at 12:30 p.m. (ET) March 24 on NBC Sports Network, preceded by the three rounds of qualifications March 23 (live on NBC Sports Network at 2:30 p.m. ET) and practice March 22.

James Jakes, in his first test with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, was ninth-quick in Session 4 and 11th overall. Ana Beatriz, who got in 31 laps in the No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing car March 12, added 41 laps in the morning session March 13 before Stefan Wilson tested. Justin Wilson's younger brother completed 42 laps. Beatriz and Stefan Wilson, both of whom have two Firestone Indy Lights victories, are working on deals to drive a limited schedule with Dale Coyne Racing.

"It’s great to have a taste of IndyCar," Wilson said. "Unfortunately, we missed an hour-and-a-half after lunch so it was just a brief taste, but hopefully we’ll be able to get another test in. There was a lot to adjust to, getting use to gearing, coming into pit stops and leaving the pits as well. It was a lot to take in on the first day. It’s good to just kind of shake the cobwebs off and get back in a race car on the road course."