Castroneves tops practice

Castroneves was timed in 21.9922sec (166.150mph) in the No. 3 Marlboro Team Penske Toyota-powered Dallara, topping the fastest lap of the morning session, set by another Toyota driven by Scott Dixon.

Castroneves acknowledged that Toyota has a better chance against Honda on shorter tracks. Honda has won the last seven IRL races following the season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The last positive result for Toyota was Castroneves' pole-winning lap at Richmond on June 25.

"This track hides a little bit of the weakness we have," Castroneves said. "We can't rely on that all the time. The Toyota guys have been working their butts off, but we can't rely on that. The Penske guys have done a nice job with the chassis set-up, which helps us to catch up. It's tough, but that's part of the game. Sometimes you're doing fantastic, sometimes you're not."

Dixon's lap of 165.799mph in the No. 1 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Toyota/Panoz G Force led the morning session with teammate Darren Manning. Rahal Letterman Racing teammates Vitor Meira and Buddy Rice were atop the charts in the afternoon session until Castroneves topped Meira's lap.

If he can win the pole on Saturday, Castroneves will find it nostalgic as well as practical. The first pole of his CART Champ Car Series career came at Milwaukee in 1999. Track position is expected to be critical in Sunday's race, which begins at 3:45 p.m. ET.

"It's very, very important," Castroneves said. "Especially the way I see everybody as very similar in lines and their setups. The times were extremely close, too. When you have this much closeness, it's going to be tough."

Also posting solid laps Friday were Dario Franchitti, Adrian Fernandez, Tony Kanaan, Sam Hornish Jr. and Tomas Scheckter.

Two drivers crashed during the afternoon session. A.J. Foyt IV hit the wall on the exit of Turn Four, and Kosuke Matsuura hit the wall in the middle of Four. Both were checked and released at the infield care center.

"The rubber from the (USAC) midgets and dirt cars makes the track pretty slick for us," Foyt said. "It just stepped out on me. I should have been more patient."