Dixon fastest in Kansas practice

Thanks to his awful start to the year, Dixon was eligible to run in the opening half-hour session for drivers outside the top ten in the championship and rookies.

The Ganassi driver topped this segment, and then was able to respond every time he was knocked off first place in the full session that followed.

Helio Castroneves jumped to second for Penske in the closing moments, despite earlier causing the session's only yellow due to a small fire on his car.

Third went to Marco Andretti. The Andretti Green driver had languished at the foot of the timing screens for much of the morning, but surged into contention later on and briefly led the way in the final minutes before Dixon and Castroneves improved.

Completing a strong start to the weekend for AGR, Andretti's team-mates Danica Patrick, Tony Kanaan and Hideki Mutoh took fifth, sixth and eighth places, behind Penske's Ryan Briscoe, and split by Dan Wheldon (Panther), who has won at Kansas for the past two years.

The star of the session was Sarah Fisher, who ran in the top ten throughout as her self-run team made the first appearance of its partial 2009 schedule. She eventually took ninth place ahead of Long Beach winner Dario Franchitti (Ganassi).

Vitor Meira held a top five spot for a while in his AJ Foyt Enterprises car, before slipping to 11th ahead of top rookie Robert Doornbos, as Newman/Haas/Lanigan's Dutch driver made a solid start to his first weekend of oval racing.

Milka Duno took 18th on her return to the championship with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.

A 22-car field will go into this afternoon's qualifying session. While Fisher's return has boosted the numbers, Penske has returned to a two-car line-up for now, leaving Will Power as a spectator, and the cash-strapped Conquest Racing team has decided to skip Kansas to focus on what it hopes will be a two-car assualt on the Indianapolis 500.

Pos  Driver             Team                 Time      Gap
 1.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi              25.8137s
 2.  Helio Castroneves  Penske               25.8721s  + 0.0584s
 3.  Marco Andretti     Andretti Green       25.8727s  + 0.0590s
 4.  Ryan Briscoe       Penske               25.8743s  + 0.0606s
 5.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green       25.8827s  + 0.0690s
 6.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green       25.9201s  + 0.1064s
 7.  Dan Wheldon        Panther              25.9349s  + 0.1212s
 8.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green       25.9574s  + 0.1437s
 9.  Sarah Fisher       Fisher               25.9647s  + 0.1510s
10.  Dario Franchitti   Ganassi              25.9653s  + 0.1516s
11.  Vitor Meira        Foyt                 25.9664s  + 0.1527s
12.  Robert Doornbos    Newman/Haas/Lanigan  26.0339s  + 0.2202s
13.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan  26.0395s  + 0.2258s
14.  Ed Carpenter       Vision               26.0649s  + 0.2512s
15.  Mario Moraes       KV                   26.0724s  + 0.2587s
16.  Raphael Matos      Luczo Dragon         26.1166s  + 0.3029s
17.  Mike Conway        Dreyer & Reinbold    26.1659s  + 0.3522s
18.  Milka Duno         Dreyer & Reinbold    26,2401s  + 0.4264s
19.  Justin Wilson      Coyne                26.2460s  + 0.4323s
20.  EJ Viso            HVM                  26.2960s  + 0.4823s
21.  Stanton Barrett    3G                   26.4225s  + 0.6088s
22.  Ryan Hunter-Reay   Vision               26.5592s  + 0.7455s