Briscoe fastest again at Sebring

He and teammate Helio Castroneves spent Thursday trading times until rain stopped the session with 45 minutes remaining.

The Australian's final lap of the day - 52.420s thus proved the fastest of the entire week. Castroneves was just 0.03s behind him when the test came to a premature end.

"The track was really quick this afternoon," said Briscoe. "Helio turned a fast lap mid-session, so we had something to shoot for. We went out on new tyres, but we weren't quite happy with the car, so I had to come in. We made a change, which proved to be very effective. It is amazing what a small adjustment can do to lap times around this circuit.

"The Team Penske car was performing very well at the end of the session and I think we made a lot of progress today," he added.

Ganassi drivers Dan Wheldon and Scot Dixon were once again third and fourth fastest, and again they were half a second away from the Penske cars.

Not only that but the two former champions, who had showed the way in oval testing at Miami-Homestead last week, failed to match the pace of Team Andretti Green's Tony Kanaan when the Sebring track was the least rubbered-in at the start of the week.

AJ Foyt's Darren Manning showed progress with the fifth fastest lap, less than two tenths shy of Dixon, while Panther Racing's Vitor Meira and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing teammates Buddy Rice and Townsend Bell completed the order.

Thursday's times:

Pos  Driver          Time         Speed     Laps
 1.  Briscoe         52.4202      114.689    112
 2.  Castroneves     52.4531      114.617     85
 3.  Wheldon         53.0131      113.406    113
 4.  Dixon           53.0286      113.373    129
 5.  Manning         53.0433      113.341     71
 6.  Meira           53.2467      112.908    122
 7.  Rice            53.3859      112.614     81 
 8.  Bell            54.0505      111.229     77