Briscoe quickest in second practice

The Australian driver was the fastest in the first of the two groups to run during this split session, which - like morning practice - was stretched to two hours to provide the teams with the mileage they had missed out on when rain curtailed Friday's pre-race test.

First practice pace-setter Hideki Mutoh was a strong contender again as he took second place for Andretti-Green Racing, just 0.0529 seconds behind Briscoe. The Japanese rookie's morning lap remains the best of the weekend so far.

Mutoh's teammate Tony Kanaan was fastest in the second group and took third, a mere 0.0003 seconds away from second, while Danica Patrick put a third AGR car in the top five by taking fifth behind Briscoe's Penske teammate Helio Castroneves.

Ganassi only managed sixth for Dan Wheldon, who was running his back-up car after his involvement in Bruno Junqueira's morning crash, and 12th for points leader Scott Dixon, as the latter struggled to perfect his set-up on the short but very fast track.

Rahal Letterman Racing's Ryan Hunter-Reay and AJ Foyt Racing's Darren Manning showed promising speed as they took seventh and eighth. Marco Andretti (AGR) and Ed Carpenter (Vision) completed the top ten, ahead of an impressive performance from Dale Coyne's rookie Mario Moraes in 11th.

The afternoon session passed without incident and saw no repeat of the morning's crashes.

But the early accidents have left the field somewhat depleted, with both Junqueira (Dale Coyne Racing) and Marty Roth (Roth Racing) ruled out for the weekend due to the damage sustained in their earlier crashes, which their teams believe were caused by mechanical problems rather than driver errors.

With Pacific Coast Motorsport having withdrawn Mario Dominguez from the event earlier in the week, that leaves a 24-car field to participate in this afternoon's qualifying session.

Pos  Driver             Team                 Time
 1.  Ryan Briscoe       Penske               17.4206
 2.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green       17.4735  + 0.0529
 3.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green       17.4738  + 0.0532
 4.  Helio Castroneves  Penske               17.4812  + 0.0606
 5.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green       17.5068  + 0.0862
 6.  Dan Wheldon        Ganassi              17.5230  + 0.1024
 7.  Ryan Hunter-Reay   Rahal Letterman      17.5759  + 0.1553
 8.  Darren Manning     Foyt                 17.5838  + 0.1632
 9.  Marco Andretti     Andretti Green       17.5852  + 0.1646
10.  Ed Carpenter       Vision               17.5884  + 0.1678
11.  Mario Moraes       Dale Coyne           17.5913  + 0.1707
12.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi              17.5937  + 0.1731
13.  Vitor Meira        Panther              17.5969  + 0.1763
14.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan  17.6119  + 0.1913
15.  Will Power         KV                   17.6156  + 0.1950
16.  John Andretti      Roth                 17.6457  + 0.2251
17.  Buddy Rice         Dreyer & Reinbold    17.6461  + 0.2255
18.  Oriol Servia       KV                   17.6565  + 0.2359
19.  EJ Viso            HVM                  17.6642  + 0.2436
20.  Enrique Bernoldi   Conquest             17.7282  + 0.3076
21.  Jamie Camara       Conquest             17.7956  + 0.3750
22.  Justin Wilson      Newman/Haas/Lanigan  17.8227  + 0.4021
23.  AJ Foyt IV         Vision               17.8358  + 0.4152
24.  Milka Duno         Dreyer & Reinbold    18.2930  + 0.8724