Carpenter leads first practice day

The six-hour session was interrupted by rain showers, and was for many teams little more than a shakedown. But Carpenter covered 32 laps, with a best time of 40.0380s at a speed of 224.786mph.

Fisher, who has stepped away from driving this season to concentrate on running the team and the birth later this year of her first child, was delighted with Carpenter's pace in what had previously been her car.

"That wasn't supposed to happen yet," said Fisher of Carpenter's time. "You're supposed to slowly build up and do that.

"I've had a lot of questions about whether it was going to be hard watching the #67 car go around without me in it.

"Honestly, it makes a difference with the individual you have representing you and doing the job for you. Ed's a perfect fit for us and really showed that today. We're really proud of the boys and the job they did together."

Scott Dixon was second fastest for Ganassi, setting his time on the fourth of only six laps he completed on the opening day.

Panther's JR Hildebrand was third, followed by Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) and Marco Andretti (Andretti), with Ryan Briscoe the top Penske driver in sixth.

Pos  Driver               Team                     Time      Gap
 1.  Ed Carpenter         Sarah Fisher             40.0380s
 2.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi                  40.0907s  + 0.0527s
 3.  JR Hildebrand        Panther                  40.1011s  + 0.0631s
 4.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi                  40.1594s  + 0.1214s
 5.  Marco Andretti       Andretti                 40.1916s  + 0.1536s
 6.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske                   40.2125s  + 0.1745s
 7.  Vitor Meira          Foyt                     40.3240s  + 0.2860s
 8.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi                  40.4015s  + 0.3635s
 9.  Helio Castroneves    Penske                   40.4031s  + 0.3651s
10.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold        40.4749s  + 0.4369s
11.  Paul Tracy           Dreyer & Reinbold        40.4868s  + 0.4488s
12.  Danica Patrick       Andretti                 40.4982s  + 0.4602s
13.  John Andretti        Petty/Andretti           40.5338s  + 0.4958s
14.  Oriol Servia         Newman/Haas              40.5489s  + 0.5109s
15.  Will Power           Penske                   40.5704s  + 0.5324s
16.  Buddy Rice           Panther                  40.6393s  + 0.6013s
17.  James Hinchcliffe    Newman/Haas              40.6405s  + 0.6025s
18.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti                 40.6696s  + 0.6316s
19.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne               40.6916s  + 0.6536s
20.  Takuma Sato          KV                       40.7455s  + 0.7075s
21.  Pippa Mann           Conquest                 40.7717s  + 0.7337s
22.  Bertrand Baguette    Rahal Letterman Lanigan  40.7981s  + 0.7601s
23.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold        40.8095s  + 0.7715s
24.  EJ Viso              KV                       40.8110s  + 0.7730s
25.  Tony Kanaan          KV                       40.8373s  + 0.7993s
26.  Bruno Junqueira      Foyt                     40.8680s  + 0.8300s
27.  Tomas Schecketer     KV/SH                    40.8765s  + 0.8385s
28.  Mike Conway          Andretti                 40.8794s  + 0.8414s
29.  Jay Howard           Schmidt/Rahal            40.9280s  + 0.8900s
30.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                      40.9982s  + 0.9602s
31.  Sebastian Saavedra   Conquest                 41.4477s  + 1.4097s
32.  James Jakes          Dale Coyne               41.4569s  + 1.4189s