Penske tops Friday practice at Indy

He was followed by team-mate Helio Castroneves at 39.9223s (225.438 mph) while Will Power, driving the team's third entry, was clocked seventh-fastest of the 33 cars on the track.

Briscoe and Castroneves were slightly ahead of their rivals at Chip Ganassi Racing, which is fielding the winners of the last two Indianapolis 500s. Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon were third and fourth.

When asked if he felt the Ganassi drivers were sandbagging in practice, Briscoe replied: "I hope not," recalling Dixon's return to the track to regain the pole from him last year.

"I'm feeling good, though," Briscoe said. "I think the car is running very solid. We've done some non-drafting laps, and the car's been fast. Tomorrow is another day, and everyone is going to be going for it. Hopefully there won't be any surprises and we can stay at the top."

Andretti Green Racing and Panther Racing also should be in the hunt when qualifying begins at noon local time on Saturday. Danica Patrick and Marco Andretti had the fifth- and sixth-fastest laps of the day, while Panther's Dan Wheldon was eighth.

"It's great to start up front, but it's a 500-mile race," Patrick said. "I remember in 2005 when Mr Wheldon won from the middle of the pack. Anything is possible."

Saturday's session is expected to be hampered by colder temperatures and wind, but forecasts do not predict rain. Rain surrounded the track on Friday but never caused lengthy delays.

"Tomorrow will be a whole other unique set of conditions for us, really," Dixon said. "The weather here in Indianapolis has been quite unpredictable, but we think we have a strong shot at the pole for tomorrow. The Penske cars have been pretty fast, though. Dario has been strong, as well, so we're optimistic about getting solidly into the race."

Three drivers were involved in costly crashes on Friday, the worst sustained by Scott Sharp. His Panther Racing Dallara spun suddenly in Turn 1, ending his day.

"It just snapped on me," Sharp said. "I'm not exactly sure what's up. I have to go back and figure all of that out with the Panther team. We've been struggling a little bit to gain more speed and didn't really need this to happen right now. We'll see what the plan is and find a way to rebound."

Ryan Hunter-Reay and Robert Doornbos spun and hit the wall earlier in the day, but both returned. Vision Racing repaired the light damage to Hunter-Reay's #21 car and got it back on track. Doornbos returned in his T car.

The surprise of the week so far - Alex Lloyd in the Ganassi/Sam Schmidt #99 car - could have a shot at making the top 11 on Saturday. His lap of 224.219 mph was the 10th best of the day.

"We're in the window where we're pretty happy," Lloyd said. "We're pleased with the speed of the car, and I think we can go a little bit quicker if we take off a little more downforce. Obviously, the aim is to try to get qualified tomorrow, and I think we've got a car that's capable of doing that."

The top 11 positions on the 33-car starting grid will be determined by Saturday's qualifying. Once 11 positions are filled, drivers will begin to bump one another out of the top 11.

Pos  Driver             Team                     Time      Gap
 1.  Ryan Briscoe       Penske                   39.8263s
 2.  Helio Castroneves  Penske                   39.9223s  + 0.0960s
 3.  Dario Franchitti   Ganassi                  40.0029s  + 0.1766s
 4.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi                  40.0317s  + 0.2054s
 5.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green           40.0436s  + 0.2173s
 6.  Marco Andretti     Andretti Green           40.0492s  + 0.2229s
 7.  Will Power         Penske                   40.0733s  + 0.2470s
 8.  Dan Wheldon        Panther                  40.1146s  + 0.2883s
 9.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green           40.1388s  + 0.3125s
10.  Alex Lloyd         Schmidt/Ganassi          40.1393s  + 0.3130s
11.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan      40.1528s  + 0.3265s
12.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green           40.1726s  + 0.3463s
13.  Robert Doornbos    Newman/Haas/Lanigan      40.1867s  + 0.3604s
14.  Mario Moraes       KV                       40.2549s  + 0.4286s
15.  Vitor Meira        Foyt                     40.2573s  + 0.4310s
16.  Paul Tracy         KV                       40.2916s  + 0.4653s
17.  Raphael Matos      Luczo Dragon             40.4203s  + 0.5940s
18.  Sarah Fisher       Fisher                   40.4596s  + 0.6333s
19.  John Andretti      Petty/Dreyer & Reinbold  40.5262s  + 0.6999s
20.  Ed Carpenter       Vision                   40.5367s  + 0.7104s
21.  Davey Hamilton     Dreyer & Reinbold        40.5440s  + 0.7177s
22.  Scott Sharp        Panther                  40.5882s  + 0.7619s
23.  Justin Wilson      Coyne                    40.5885s  + 0.7622s
24.  Alex Tagliani      Conquest                 40.6250s  + 0.7987s
25.  AJ Foyt IV         Foyt                     40.7525s  + 0.9262s
26.  EJ Viso            HVM                      40.7540s  + 0.9277s
27.  Ryan Hunter-Reay   Vision                   40.7949s  + 0.9686s
28.  Mike Conway        Dreyer & Reinbold        40.8163s  + 0.9900s
29.  Nelson Philippe    HVM                      40.9376s  + 1.1113s
30.  Milka Duno         Dreyer & Reinbold        40.9708s  + 1.1445s
31.  Stanton Barrett    3G                       41.1506s  + 1.3243s