March 24, Homestead Florida: A host of shadows, secrets and ghosts were hidden within a sunny, businesslike first day of practice on Friday. The initial laps of the new season hinted at much and revealed little, and the presence of two former CART pilots gave the day an unsettling tone.

The first ghost was the spirit of the paddock's fallen warrior, Greg Moore, who died in his racecar the last time the CART family gathered to compete. Moore won the 1999 Homestead event from the pole, and the dual notation of his name on every timesheet made it impossible to forget that the defending winner would never race with us again.

The second ghost was the living, breathing, laughing, joking figure of Alex Zanardi, CART's once (and future?) champion and superstar. Today's practice was Alex's first appearance at a CART event since he departed for Formula 1 at the end of the 1998 season. His presence whipped insiders into a frenzy of speculation about a possible return to CART action, and his lengthy, entertaining, hastily-organized press conference only added to the mystery.

Meanwhile, the on-track action presented more questions than answers. Mo Nunn proved that his engineering talents are just as potent outside of the Target team, enabling his driver Tony Kanaan to post the day's fastest time in a Honda Reynard during the afternoon session. Greg Moore's ex-teammate Patrick Carpentier was second in a Ford Reynard, and Christian Fittipaldi was third in a Ford Lola.

The morning session was dominated by Fords, with the American manufacturer sweeping the top seven positions. Early in the session, rookie Alex Tagliani roared into pit road at over seventy miles an hour, attempted a rapid deceleration to avoid the CART smokies, and slid backwards into Tony Kanaan's parked car, knocking over several photographers and crewmembers, three of whom received medical attention for non-serious injuries. The afternoon session was less dramatic and more democratic, with Mercedes, Ford, Toyota and Honda represented in the top seven.

The practice results were far from predictive, however, due to a variety of team strategies that included running on full tanks, conserving tires, and perhaps a bit of sandbagging. One chassis technician suggested that Newman Haas was working on each turn in segments of the practice session, refusing to run a full-on complete lap and show their cards to the rest of the field. Insiders were whispering of a Michael Andretti pole, citing his experience as the winningest driver in the series and his history of success at Homestead. If you were Michael, would you be tipping your hand until the green flag of qualifying waves?

Following the traditional top-three press conference was an improvised media-availability by the visiting Zanardi, an occasion that entertained more than enlightened. Zanardi appeared sincere in his contention that racing is not a game, and that the only conceivable return to CART would be one where his level of personal commitment matched the competitive fire he showed in his twenty-year racing career. The humbled champion explained his reasons for a less-than-stellar showing in Formula 1, and exuded a relaxed confidence and peace with his unfamiliar situation of having a blank summer calendar.