Dixon denies Meira as Franchitti edges Power in first practice at Kentucky
Scott Dixon denied Vitor Meira top spot in the opening session of IndyCar's penultimate round at the Kentucky Speedway, while Dario Franchitti edged title rival Will Power
AJ Foyt's Meira ran at the sharp end throughout the session, and grabbed second two minutes from the end. He could not quite match Dixon however, with the Ganassi man also setting his best time in the final minutes.
As the order changed continually, title contenders Will Power (Penske) and Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) kept themselves in the mix.
Power topped the timesheets in the opening stages as Franchitti opted to wait in the pits. When he did come out the Scot was on the pace straight away and moved into second with ten minutes remaining, before dropping to fourth as others made late improvements.
Wade Cunningham was a prime example, the Sam Schmidt man rising to third with just nine seconds of the session remaining.
KV Racing's Takumo Sato finished fifth fastest ahead of Power and the Ganassi duo of Graham Rahal and Charlie Kimball.
Dan Wheldon, competing at Kentucky as a warm-up for his potentially big-money outing at Las Vegas, finished 14th for Sam Scmidt.
Townsend Bell, replacing the injured Justin Wilson at Dreyer and Reinbold, was 20th, while Dillon Battistini (Conquest) was 26th on his debut.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Scott Dixon Ganassi 24.1648s 2. Vitor Meira Foyt 24.3062s + 0.1414s 3. Wade Cunningham Sam Schmidt 24.3395s + 0.1747s 4. Dario Franchitti Ganassi 24.3702s + 0.2054s 5. Takuma Sato KV 24.3925s + 0.2277s 6. Will Power Penske 24.3966s + 0.2318s 7. Graham Rahal Ganassi 24.3971s + 0.2323s 8. Charlie Kimball Ganassi 24.4115s + 0.2467s 9. JR Hildebrand Panther 24.4342s + 0.2694s 10. Ed Carpenter Sarah Fisher 24.4423s + 0.2775s 11. Ryan Briscoe Penske 24.4658s + 0.3010s 12. Tony Kanaan KV 24.4938s + 0.3290s 13. Marco Andretti Andretti 24.5247s + 0.3599s 14. Dan Wheldon Sam Schmidt 24.5358s + 0.3710s 15. Ana Beatriz Dreyer & Reinbold 24.5359s + 0.3711s 16. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti 24.5505s + 0.3857s 17. Helio Castroneves Penske 24.5509s + 0.3861s 18. James Hinchcliffe Newman/Haas 24.5552s + 0.3904s 19. Oriol Servia Newman/Haas 24.5698s + 0.4050s 20. Townsend Bell Dreyer & Reinbold 24.5853s + 0.4205s 21. Alex Lloyd Dale Coyne 24.5944s + 0.4296s 22. EJ Viso KV 24.6144s + 0.4496s 23. Mike Conway Andretti 24.6317s + 0.4669s 24. Danica Patrick Andretti 24.7232s + 0.5584s 25. Dillon Battistini Conquest 24.7966s + 0.6318s 26. Pippa Mann Rahal Letterman 24.8430s + 0.6782s 27. James Jakes Dale Coyne 24.8793s + 0.7145s 28. Simona de Silvestro HVM 24.9666s + 0.8018s
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments