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Dixon fastest as brick halts practice

Scott Dixon set the fastest time in Friday's practice session for the Indianapolis 500, which was cut short when a piece of a brick from the yard of bricks at the start-finish line came loose and struck Mario Moraes' car

The incident did not cause extensive damage to the KV driver's Dallara-Honda but it did leave a hole in the track and bring an end to a busy session about 20 minutes before its scheduled conclusion.

"I believe that's the first time that has ever happened," said Brian Barnhart, the Indy Racing League's chief operating officer, who made the decision to end the practice early to facilitate repairs.

Prior to the stoppage, last year's race winner Dixon (Ganassi) had gone quickest with a lap of 222.799mph, while Moraes' KV team-mate Townsend Bell was fastest among those yet to qualify, lapping at 222.139 mph in the #8 KVRT entry, putting him third fastest overall.

"I've had the chance to run a couple of times here before, and it's nice," Bell said. "Each time you come a little bit smarter in terms of what you need to have a good run on [race day]. I'm pretty happy with where we are. We had a chance to sort of inch our way toward more of qualifying set-up on the last run. The car's obviously quick, and I'm really excited about getting it into the field tomorrow."

Other non-qualifiers who looked strong included Oriol Servia, who turned a lap of 221.140 mph to take seventh for Rahal Letterman Racing, and Newman/Haas/Lanigan's Robert Doornbos, who was clocked at 220.804 mph. He had failed to qualify last weekend after two practice crashes.

"It was our plan to forget about tomorrow and work on the race car, but to be honest, it was always in the back of my mind because we are in a strange situation," Doornbos said. "We have a fast car, but we are not qualified. You just want to make sure you are in the show and then you start working on the race car."

Bell, Servia and Doornbos are expected to be the chief competitors for the 23rd starting position when qualifying resumes at noon local time on Saturday. Positions 23 through 33 remain open; the first 22 positions having been filled last weekend.

Those who have already secured starting positions spent Friday working on race set-ups. Before the trouble with the brick, Moraes had the second-best lap of the day, at a speed of 222.530 mph.

"On my last lap, I went across the start/finish line and sucked up a brick, which damaged my car and ended my day," Moraes said. "I feel bad for the crew because they are going to have to do some extra work tonight."

Pole winner Helio Castroneves was fourth in his T-car, followed by his Penske team-mate Ryan Briscoe, also trying out his spare.

Having failed to qualify on the first weekend due to a practice crash, Conquest Racing's Alex Tagliani recorded a promising lap of 220.804 mph in his T-car today, while Tomas Scheckter impressed by lapping at 220.516mph as he had his first taste of the #19 Dale Coyne Racing car.

Pos  Driver            Team                     Time      Speed
 1.  Scott Dixon       Ganassi                  40.3951s  222.799mph
 2.  Mario Moraes      KV                       40.4440s  222.530mph
 3.  Townsend Bell     KV                       40.5152s  222.139mph
 4.  Helio Castroneves Penske                   40.5955s  221.699mph
 5.  Ryan Briscoe      Penske                   40.6198s  221.567mph
 6.  Dario Franchitti  Ganassi                  40.6887s  221.192mph
 7.  Oriol Servia      Rahal Letterman          40.6982s  221.140mph
 8.  Ed Carpenter      Vision                   40.7124s  221.063mph
 9.  Tony Kanaan       Andretti Green           40.7380s  220.924mph
10.  Robert Doornbos   Newman/Haas/Lanigan      40.7601s  220.804mph
11.  Alex Tagliani     Conquest                 40.7601s  220.804mph
12.  Raphael Matos     Luczo Dragon             40.7644s  220.781mph
13.  Graham Rahal      Newman/Haas/Lanigan      40.7836s  220.677mph
14.  Hideki Mutoh      Andretti Green           40.7852s  220.668mph
15.  Tomas Scheckter   Coyne                    40.8134s  220.516mph
16.  Dan Wheldon       Panther                  40.8145s  220.510mph
17.  AJ Foyt IV        Foyt                     40.8387s  220.379mph
18.  Will Power        Penske                   40.8617s  220.255mph
19.  Sarah Fisher      Fisher                   40.8733s  220.193mph
20.  Danica Patrick    Andretti Green           40.9585s  219.735mph
21.  Davey Hamilton    Dreyer & Reinbold        40.9651s  219.699mph
22.  Marco Andretti    Andretti Green           40.9892s  219.570mph
23.  John Andretti     Petty/Dreyer & Reinbold  40.9927s  219.551mph
24.  EJ Viso           HVM                      40.9967s  219.530mph
25.  Ryan Hunter-Reay  Vision                   40.9991s  219.517mph
26.  Stanton Barrett   3G                       41.0024s  219.499mph
27.  Alex Lloyd        Schmidt/Ganassi          41.0330s  219.336mph
28.  Mike Conway       Dreyer & Reinbold        41.0520s  219.234mph
29.  Buddy Lazier      Hemelgarn                41.0602s  219.190mph
30.  Milka Duno        Dreyer & Reinbold        41.2151s  218.367mph
31.  Nelson Philippe   HVM                      41.2928s  217.956mph

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