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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

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