If Dan Wheldon is going to win his fourth straight IRL IndyCar Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he’s going to have to come from the rear of the field to do it.

The Englishman, just back from a relaxing honeymoon in Bali, couldn’t get through IndyCar’s new four-lap qualifying format Friday night, slamming into the wall on his second lap around the 1.5-mile oval and putting his Homestead string in jeopardy.

“It’s a long race,” Wheldon said after emerging from the mandatory checkup at the infield hospital. “We’ll just have to try to be real patient and try to stay out of trouble until we can get where we need to be.”

That won’t be easy, considering Saturday night’s Gainsco Indy 300 is going to be the first race of the new, unified American IndyCar era, with eight entries from the now-defunct Champ Car World Series — many of them making their first start on an oval — in the 25-car field.

“There’s going to be a lot of guys out there with their hands full, probably my teammate especially starting from the back,” said Scott Dixon, who won the pole for the season-opener. “So those first two laps and watching Dan should be pretty exciting.”

Over the winter, the IRL announced that it would adopt the unique four-lap qualifying format used at Indy for all of its oval races in 2008. Dixon took advantage with a four-lap average of 213.341 mph in his Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara, earning his ninth career pole.

Ed Carpenter, the last driver in the evening qualifying session, came close to beating the New Zealander and winning his first pole with an average of 213.311.

The 25 cars on the track during Friday’s practice sessions were the most for an IndyCar event other than the Indianapolis 500 since 2003.

The solid field, with the prospect of even more entries later in the season, had a lot of people smiling Friday. But the spate of Dallara Hondas on track also brought with it some trepidation, particularly about the newcomers with little or no oval racing experience.

“They don’t have enough experience on the ovals and, if the car isn’t good on the ovals, it can be dangerous just because of the cars, not because of you,” former series champion Tony Kanaan said.

“Running together with them, their cars are not very well set up yet,” the Brazilian driver added. “Running in traffic with three cars in front and two cars in back, they don’t know what to expect when you get behind somebody. They’re washing out and you’re right beside them, but they never experienced that. So they can’t anticipate something that they haven’t gone through.”

Kanaan said everyone — newcomers and IRL veterans alike — was being extra careful.

“We were giving each other a lot of room, which is not going to happen in the race,” he said.

Through the practice sessions — a total of about 2½ hours — there were no crashes. In fact, until qualifying, the only wreck since the former Champ Car teams began testing their new cars came here Tuesday when 19-year-old Graham Rahal tore up his Dallara.

With spare parts hard to come by and little time for repairs, the Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing team was forced to withdraw Rahal’s entry for the weekend, instead concentrating on getting the car ready for next week’s road race at St. Petersburg.

Friday night’s qualifying produced two more crashes, neither involving the former Champ Car teams.

Wheldon said his car, which will be repaired for the race, just got loose and slapped the wall, while rookie Jay Howard slid backward into the concrete barrier.

X-rays on Howard’s aching right knee were negative, but he will be evaluated by doctors Saturday and could start the race if he is medically cleared and his team can repair his car.

For Brian Barnhart, vice president of competition for the IRL, the showing by the newcomers has impressed him so far.

“I think it’s a daunting task for them,” Barnhart said between practice sessions.

“It is a challenge in a lot of ways out there, and especially with 25 or 26 cars. It’s going to be a new experience in learning the tendencies of other drivers. The people that have historically been in the IndyCar Series had a comfort level knowing what the driver next to them is going to do. … Now a third of our field is completely new at this, so the regulars are going to be learning a lot about what they’re doing.”

Barnhart said he harped on the inexperience level and preached patience during his meeting with the drivers before the opening practice.

“I think it will come,” he said. “They’re very good teams, they’re very well engineered, they’re good drivers. To see the increase in improvement from Monday evening (when the Homestead test began) to this afternoon shows that they’re going to adapt to it very well.”

Hookscenter.com wire report.