Dixon moves ahead in final practice
Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves continued their dominance of the Detroit weekend by leading the delayed final practice sessions
Thick fog forced the split sessions to start half an hour behind schedule, but once the first group of cars hit the track, Penske driver Castroneves was dominant, heading second placed Dan Wheldon (Ganassi) by nearly a full second.
Dixon was in the second group, and initially struggled to match Castroneves' earlier time - lapping 0.4 seconds slower than his title rival in his first runs and brushing the wall as he attempted to improve.
But in the closing moments Dixon, who can clinch the 2008 title this weekend, found the speed he had been lacking and beat Castroneves by 0.1222 seconds, with third placed Ryan Hunter-Reay 0.7 seconds adrift in his Rahal-Letterman Racing car.
Will Power (KV) and EJ Viso (HVM) completed the top five, despite the latter briefly halting the session when he spun down the Turn 3 escape road. Wheldon was classified sixth on combined times.
Having been drafted in late last night to replace the injured Enrique Bernoldi at Conquest, Alex Tagliani was allowed to participate in the full hour to give him a chance to acclimatise to the IRL Dallara-Honda for the first time. The Champ Car veteran built up speed steadily, despite a quick spin at Turn 8, and ended the morning in 22nd.
After his series of spins yesterday, Marty Roth was in the wars again as he crashed his Roth Racing Dallara before he could even set a time, causing an almost immediate stoppage at the start of the session.
Dale Coyne Racing's Mario Moraes was also in trouble, being sidelined early on with broken front suspension.
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Scott Dixon Ganassi 1:12.5015 2. Helio Castroneves Penske 1:12.6237 + 0.1222 3. Ryan Hunter-Reay Rahal Letterman 1:13.2561 + 0.7546 4. Will Power KV 1:13.3127 + 0.8112 5. EJ Viso HVM 1:13.5223 + 1.0208 6. Dan Wheldon Ganassi 1:13.5671 + 1.0656 7. Oriol Servia KV 1:13.6896 + 1.1881 8. Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne 1:13.7408 + 1.2393 9. Justin Wilson Newman/Haas/Lanigan 1:13.7484 + 1.2469 10. Tony Kanaan Andretti Green 1:13.8790 + 1.3775 11. Danica Patrick Andretti Green 1:13.9315 + 1.4300 12. Vitor Meira Panther 1:13.9654 + 1.4639 13. Ryan Briscoe Penske 1:14.0342 + 1.5327 14. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan 1:14.2029 + 1.7014 15. Hideki Mutoh Andretti Green 1:14.3779 + 1.8764 16. Marco Andretti Andretti Green 1:14.5639 + 2.0624 17. Tomas Scheckter Luczo Dragon 1:14.6665 + 2.1650 18. Darren Manning Foyt 1:14.6864 + 2.1849 19. AJ Foyt IV Vision 1:14.9097 + 2.4082 20. Ed Carpenter Vision 1:15.5961 + 3.0946 21. Buddy Rice Dreyer & Reinbold 1:15.6014 + 3.0999 22. Alex Tagliani Conquest 1:16.4424 + 3.9409 23. Jaime Camara Conquest 1:17.0898 + 4.5883 24. Milka Duno Dreyer & Reinbold 1:19.0112 + 6.5097 25. Mario Moraes Dale Coyne 1:23.6836 + 11.1821 26. Marty Roth Roth
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