Castroneves breaks 220mph

Castroneves credited team-mate Sam Hornish Jr, who missed Sunday's opening day of practice because of a respiratory infection, with Monday's tow-aided lap.

"It's good that both of us are working together, because we're trying to beat 31 other cars," Castroneves said. "The bad thing is, if he's having a better day, he's going to be beating you. In the worst situation, you're going to be second."

Scott Dixon, who had the fastest lap on Sunday and nearly matched it yesterday, was knocked off the top spot by Castroneves, one of several drivers to make a run for the quickest lap during the final 10 minutes of the session. Dixon circled the 2.5-mile oval in 219.569mph in his Chip Ganassi Racing G Force/Toyota.

Tony Kanaan nearly nudged Dixon out of the second spot with a lap of 219.553mph recorded just seconds after Castroneves' fast lap. Hornish also made an effort to take P1 as the shadows covered the front stretch, but his 219.357mph effort was fourth-best of the day.

Hornish topped 220 during the second day of an open test at Indy on April 29, recording a lap of 220.113mph. Castroneves' lap became the fastest so far at the Speedway under the IRL's new engine/chassis/tire package, but is still more than 11mph slower than Castroneves' pole-winning lap in 2003.

"I'm expecting another 2mph," Castroneves said. "The track is still a little green, but I'm sure it's going to keep increasing until Saturday. That's what happened last year, and we didn't change tyres."

Three Honda-powered cars followed Hornish on the chart - Adrian Fernandez, Kosuke Matsuura and Dario Franchitti, the Scot winding up the speed for the first time to join the elite group with laps over 219mph.

Tomas Scheckter - with the top Chevrolet-engined car, Scott Sharp and Robby Gordon rounded out the top 10. On the lap after Gordon hit his best of the day (218.446), he lost control of his Robby Gordon Motorsports Dallara/Chevrolet while exiting Turn One. Gordon climbed unhurt from the car, which sustained moderate damage to the left side.

"I went down into Turn One and the car compressed in the corner and the rear got a little bit sideways," Gordon said. "I tried to save it and it hooked back the other way and spun around. It is what it is. When you can walk away from one here, it doesn't matter how fast you were going."

Helio Castroneves Dallara/Toyota 220.300mph
Scott Dixon G-Force/Toyota 219.569mph
Tony Kanaan Dallara/Honda 219.553mph
Sam Hornish Dallara/Toyota 219.357mph
Adrian Fernandez G-Force/Honda 219.118mph
Kosuke Matsuura G-Force/Honda 219.034mph
Dario Franchitti Dallara/Honda 219.026mph
Tomas Scheckter Dallara/Chevrolet 218.893mph
Scott Sharp Dallara/Toyota 218.559mph
Robby Gordon Dallara/Chevrolet 218.446mph