Wheldon fastest in morning practice

The Panther Racing driver had been a top ten contender for most of the week, but crashed on his qualifying run yesterday. He led this morning's first hour of running with a speed of 224.164mph.

Prior to Wheldon getting up to speed, Justin Wilson (Dale Coyne Racing) and Paul Tracy (KV Racing) had swapped first position. Wilson could not quite muster the pace to get into the top 11 yesterday, while Tracy briefly held a place on the grid before being bumped back in the final hour on Saturday evening. But both ought to guarantee their Indy 500 starts later on today.

The session was interrupted by two early yellows for heavy accidents at Turn 1. Mike Conway was the first to crash, and is currently being taken to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis for further evaluation. The Dreyer & Reinbold driver was reported to be conscious after the accident.

Alex Tagliani had a less violent impact in his Conquest car and has already been released from the infield medical centre and cleared to drive again.

Foyt driver Vitor Meira, and Dreyer & Reinbold duo John Andretti and Davey Hamilton completed the morning top six.

Qualifying resumes at midday local time with a further six hours of running to decide positions 12 to 22 on the starting grid.

Pos  Driver            Team                     Time      Gap
 1.  Dan Wheldon       Panther                  40.1492s
 2.  Justin Wilson     Coyne                    40.2072s  + 0.0580s
 3.  Paul Tracy        KV                       40.2409s  + 0.0917s
 4.  Vitor Meira       Foyt                     40.3814s  + 0.2322s
 5.  John Andretti     Petty/Dreyer & Reinbold  40.4066s  + 0.2574s
 6.  Davey Hamilton    Dreyer & Reinbold        40.4620s  + 0.3128s
 7.  Sarah Fisher      Fisher                   40.4879s  + 0.3387s
 8.  AJ Foyt IV        Foyt                     40.5402s  + 0.3910s
 9.  EJ Viso           HVM                      40.6129s  + 0.4637s
10.  Ryan Hunter-Reay  Vision                   40.7349s  + 0.5857s
11.  Milka Duno        Dreyer & Reinbold        40.8505s  + 0.7013s
12.  Scott Sharp       Panther                  40.9480s  + 0.7988s
13.  Stanton Barrett   3G                       41.2326s  + 1.0834s
14.  Mike Conway       Dreyer & Reinbold        41.8792s  + 1.7300s
15.  Alex Tagliani     Conquest                 45.0967s  + 4.9475s