West Allis - To Paul Tracy, the Milwaukee Mile is the professional equivalent of an old pair of jeans.
Slip in, and enjoy the comfort.
A four-time and defending winner of Champ Car competition at the venerable oval, Tracy quickly got back into his zone Friday during 6 hours of testing for the Time Warner Cable Roadrunner 225.
"There was a change to the tire, so we're struggling with some handling issues, but in terms of getting up to speed, yeah, it's no problem," Tracy said between sessions. "It only takes a couple of laps."
Two-lap, single-car qualifying is set for 1 p.m. today, setting the 17-car field for the 225-lap, 232-mile race at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Tracy is the active Champ Car World Series leader with four victories and two poles at the Mile. The late Rodger Ward is the all-time victory leader at the track with seven, but Tracy is in a position to tie Michael Andretti for second place on Sunday.
The 37-year-old Canadian has enjoyed the challenge presented by the track, with its long, flat corners, since he raced here in Indy Lights before his 1991 Champ Car debut.
"It's not like some of the other NASCAR-style ovals, Texas or Fontana or those types of places, where you're just wide open all the time," Tracy said.
"You've really got to get the car right, and when the car is right, you've got to be committed and really drive it hard into the corner and really drive the thing. I enjoy that."
Former Formula One driver Justin Wilson set the pace for the day with a lap of 21.215 seconds (175.121 mph) in the morning session, and two-time defending champion Sebastien Bourdais was quickest in the afternoon at 21.406 seconds (173.559).
Tracy ranked seventh-fastest overall.
"I've got three or four guys I've got to worry about," said Tracy, who lost the last of his traditional short-oval rivals when 2005 pole-sitter Jimmy Vasser slid into semi-retirement.
"Obviously the guys that are getting experience now, Justin and Sebastien, they're going to be fast. The top five or six guys on the time sheets today are all quick. Obviously everybody's ratcheted it up a little bit from last year."
Tracy used two bold, outside moves early in the race last year to move into the lead from his fifth starting position and led 192 laps. It was his most dominating performance at the Mile, edging out 2002, when he started second and led 184.
That's the one Tracy pointed to as his most rewarding, considering it came just one week after he felt as though the Indianapolis 500 was wrongly awarded to Helio Castroneves, who Tracy believed he'd passed before a late caution flag. In fact, Milwaukee 2002 remains one of the most important victories of Tracy's career.
"Having a good race and winning here obviously is important to me," he said.