Castro Neves sets hot pace

The Brazilian was fastest in Friday practice at Chip Ganassi's new 1.1-mile oval, where the top 23 cars were covered by a second.

Max Papis was consistently one of the fastest men on the course and was 2nd quickest, just ahead of Roberto Moreno, another driver to concentrate mainly on distance runs.

Mark Blundell was 4th, still in pain from his back injuries but showing the kind of form he needs to if he is to retain his PacWest drive in 2000. The similarly sore Patrick Carpentier, fastest in Thursday's familiarisation sessions, was now down to 10th.

Christiano da Matta was one of the more spectacular drivers to watch and ended the day 5th fastest. Further down the leaderboard, Raul Boesel was only 23rd fastest on his CART comeback, suggesting that Dan Gurney's Eagle chassis is still off the pace no matter who he puts in the cockpit.

Shigeaki Hattori caused the only stoppage when he had a relatively harmless spin, and the Japanese driver is actually not the slowest man on the timesheets for once, outpacing both Payton-Coyne's veteran pay-driver Dennis Vitolo and the disappointed Robby Gordon in his first outing in the Eagle.

Juan Montoya was only 14th, but with Williams F1 team boss Frank Williams here in Chicago specially to watch the young Columbian, he will be back up to his normal lightning pace by qualifying on Saturday afternoon.

But will even Montoya be fast enough to beat Castro-Neves, Papis, Moreno and Da Matta?

Friday practice times from Chicago: