Dixon leads Nashville practice
Scott Dixon got his bid for a third consecutive Nashville victory off to an encouraging start by topping both Friday practice sessions at the 1.3 mile speedway
The IRL IndyCar Series points leader sat out the first half of the morning session before jumping to the head of the timesheets by lapping in 22.8711 seconds on his 11th tour.
That time remained the benchmark for the rest of the day, with even Dixon himself lapping one tenth of a second slower as he took charge of the afternoon session later on.
By second practice Dixon's Ganassi teammate Dan Wheldon had finally cured the oversteer that left him languishing in 22nd in the morning, and the Briton leapt up to second place near the end of his group session, which became third in combined afternoon times.
It was Penske's Helio Castroneves, despite causing yellows by running out of fuel on track in practice one and picking up a puncture in second practice, who led group two and claimed second overall in the afternoon, with his teammate Ryan Briscoe taking sixth after sitting out most of the morning while his engine was changed.
Until Dixon emerged in the morning, the Andretti Green quartet had dominated the leading positions, but Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick and Hideki Mutoh had to settle for second to fifth places once the Ganassi driver got up to speed.
The field is down to 24 cars this weekend, with HVM withdrawing after EJ Viso was struck down with mumps, Pacific Coast and Mario Dominguez opting to sit out all remaining oval races bar Chicagoland, and Roth Racing deciding to enter only owner/driver Marty Roth at Nashville.
Morning practice: Pos Driver Team Time 1. Scott Dixon Ganassi 22.8711 2. Tony Kanaan Andretti Green 22.9266 + 0.0555 3. Marco Andretti Andretti Green 22.9674 + 0.0963 4. Danica Patrick Andretti Green 22.9866 + 0.1155 5. Hideki Mutoh Andretti Green 23.0156 + 0.1445 6. Helio Castroneves Penske 23.0304 + 0.1593 7. Vitor Meira Panther 23.0686 + 0.1975 8. Ed Carpenter Vision 23.0851 + 0.2140 9. Oriol Servia KV 23.1410 + 0.2699 10. Will Power KV 23.1635 + 0.2924 11. Buddy Rice Dreyer & Reinbold 23.2183 + 0.3472 12. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan 23.2519 + 0.3808 13. Ryan Hunter-Reay Rahal Letterman 23.2547 + 0.3836 14. AJ Foyt IV Vision 23.3085 + 0.4374 15. Mario Moraes Dale Coyne 23.3230 + 0.4519 16. Justin Wilson Newman/Haas/Lanigan 23.3268 + 0.4557 17. Jaime Camara Conquest 23.3441 + 0.4730 18. Milka Duno Dreyer & Reinbold 23.3487 + 0.4776 19. Darren Manning Foyt 23.3489 + 0.4778 20. Enrique Bernoldi Conquest 23.3919 + 0.5208 21. Ryan Briscoe Penske 23.3972 + 0.5261 22. Dan Wheldon Ganassi 23.4899 + 0.6188 23. Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne 23.5567 + 0.6856 24. Marty Roth Roth 23.6263 + 0.7552
Afternoon practice: Pos Driver Team Time 1. Scott Dixon Ganassi 22.9172 2. Helio Castroneves Penske 22.9733 + 0.0561 3. Dan Wheldon Ganassi 22.9745 + 0.0573 4. Danica Patrick Andretti Green 23.0098 + 0.0926 5. Tony Kanaan Andretti Green 23.0330 + 0.1158 6. Ryan Briscoe Penske 23.0402 + 0.1230 7. Vitor Meira Panther 23.0452 + 0.1280 8. Marco Andretti Andretti Green 23.0529 + 0.1357 9. Ed Carpenter Vision 23.1319 + 0.2147 10. Ryan Hunter-Reay Rahal Letterman 23.1336 + 0.2164 11. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan 23.1434 + 0.2262 12. Will Power KV 23.1703 + 0.2531 13. Buddy Rice Dreyer & Reinbold 23.1720 + 0.2548 14. Mario Moraes Dale Coyne 23.1775 + 0.2603 15. Enrique Bernoldi Conquest 23.2054 + 0.2882 16. Hideki Mutoh Andretti Green 23.2112 + 0.2940 17. Justin Wilson Newman/Haas/Lanigan 23.2293 + 0.3121 18. AJ Foyt IV Vision 23.2858 + 0.3686 19. Oriol Servia KV 23.3034 + 0.3862 20. Milka Duno Dreyer & Reinbold 23.3351 + 0.4179 21. Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne 23.3698 + 0.4526 22. Darren Manning Foyt 23.4360 + 0.5188 23. Jaime Camara Conquest 23.4939 + 0.5767 24. Marty Roth Roth 23.7195 + 0.8023
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