Dixon fastest in Friday practice

The Ganassi driver recorded a comparatively light workload of 60 laps as the 11 drivers who secured their grid spots in last week's Pole Day session worked on longer full-tank runs, while those not yet in the race focused on a combination of race and qualifying simulations.

Penske teammates Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe completed the top three, both using their back-up cars, despite Briscoe being one of three drivers to crash during the day. The Australian was unhurt when he spun into the wall on the exit of Turn 1 while running behind Marco Andretti just after 4pm local time.

"I think the tyres were getting old, and I lost the rear going down into Turn 1," said Briscoe, who has already qualified on the outside of the front row.

"I was a bit surprised because I wasn't at full speed. I was just coming up to speed. I must have caught some dirty air from Marco's car in front of me and just lost the rear."

Will Power (KV Racing) and EJ Viso (HVM) also escaped injury in their earlier accidents, although as the ex-Champ Car duo did not make it into the field last Saturday, their crashes could have serious effects on whether they qualify for the race tomorrow.

Power was the fastest of the 'transition' drivers who have joined the IndyCar Series from Champ Car and was holding second overall when he crashed just under 45 minutes into today's session. His speed still stood for fourth-best at the end of the day. However, Power never returned to the track after the crash, and his team was still repairing the car late on Friday.

"Obviously this is a setback for the team because of the track time we're going to lose," Power said. "But I know the team will do what needs to be done and we will be ready to qualify tomorrow."

Also running well on Friday was Graham Rahal, who was bumped from the top 11 at the end of last Saturday's qualifying session and should be among the top runners when qualifying resumes. Rahal was clocked at 222.959 mph and went fifth-fastest in his Newman/Haas/Lanigan Dallara-Honda, despite a brush with the wall late in the day.

"It was due to the wind," Rahal said. "I had lifted already and at that point there isn't much you can do. You turn the wheel and you're off the throttle, and it's tough to get the front end back."

Returning veteran John Andretti also continued to show promising speed, as he has since he took over the No. 24 Roth Racing Dallara-Honda from Jay Howard last weekend. He posted the sixth-fastest lap on Friday at 222.860 mph.

Marco Andretti, who had the busiest day of all as he completed 126 laps, set the seventh-best lap at 222.764 mph. Dan Wheldon, Oriol Servia and Danica Patrick rounded out the top 10, as 36 cars took to the track in total, recording 2,164 laps between them.

1996 Indy winner Buddy Lazier was the latest addition to the field, making his first appearance of the year for long-time employers Hemelgarn Racing.

There will be a final hour of practice on Saturday morning before the qualifying session that will set the remaining places on the grid, after which only one position in the field will be up for grabs in Sunday's 'Bump Day' session.

Pos  Driver             Team                     Speed (mph)
 1.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi                  223.713
 2.  Helio Castroneves  Penske                   223.411
 3.  Ryan Briscoe       Penske                   223.372
 4.  Will Power         KV                       223.039
 5.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan      222.959
 6.  John Andretti      Roth                     222.860
 7.  Marco Andretti     Andretti Green           222.764
 8.  Dan Wheldon        Ganassi                  222.680
 9.  Oriol Servia       KV                       222.456
10.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green           222.388
11.  Bruno Junqueira    Dale Coyne               222.102
12.  Buddy Rice         Dreyer & Reinbold        221.919
13.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green           221.632
14.  Alex Lloyd         Rahal Letterman/Ganassi  221.538
15.  Mario Moraes       Dale Coyne               221.475
16.  Townsend Bell      Dreyer & Reinbold        221.857
17.  Sarah Fisher       Sarah Fisher             221.046
18.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green           220.878
19.  Vitor Meira        Panther                  220.756
20.  Ed Carpenter       Vision                   220.726
21.  Darren Manning     Foyt                     220.300
22.  Enrique Bernoldi   Conquest                 220.297
23.  Davey Hamilton     Vision                   220.240
24.  Jeff Simmons       Foyt                     220.111
25.  Tomas Scheckter    Luczo Dragon             220.006
26.  AJ Foyt IV         Vision                   219.909
27.  Milka Duno         Dreyer & Reinbold        219.893
28.  Justin Wilson      Newman/Haas/Lanigan      219.810
29.  Roger Yasukawa     Beck                     219.542
30.  Mario Dominguez    Pacific Coast            219.194
31.  Marty Roth         Roth                     218.951
32.  Jaime Camara       Conquest                 218.851
33.  Max Papis          Rubicon                  219.959
34.  Ryan Hunter-Reay   Rahal Letterman          218.633
35.  Buddy Lazier       Hemelgarn                216.392
36.  EJ Viso            HVM                      177.902