'Fast Friday' washed out

Hornish led all three days of practice this week in the No. 6 Marlboro Team Penske Honda/Dallara and its backup car, and was one of just two drivers to top 226 mph this week.

Weather has become almost as newsworthy as Hornish in the hours before qualifying, however.

Friday's practice session was rained out, and weather forecasts for Saturday are not promising.

Rain chances are 70 percent, and the high temperature is barely expected to into the 50s, threatening to wipe out the first day of the race's daily bump format for the second successive year.

"We feel like we're OK with where we're at," Hornish said. "We can't control the weather."

His four-lap qualifying simulation run yesterday, which produced his fastest lap of the week, was particularly impressive in the face of a heavy wind.

"That's what we've been doing over the past two days - making sure the car is good for more than just one lap," Hornish said.

"If we went out there and it wasn't good, we'd bring it back in and try to make it better. Even with the wind we had on Thursday, we felt like it was the best the car had handled all week. We're pretty excited about that."

Marlboro Team Penske drew the 49th position in the qualifying draw for the No. 6 car, meaning Hornish will likely qualify later in the day. Townsend Bell is expected to be the first driver on the track.

If the track is dry Saturday, time will most likely become a major factor in the intended strategy as teams try to fill the first 11 starting positions, then begin bumping.

"You're going to see people who want to get in that 11, because it's very important to start this race up front," Roger Penske said.

"Having less track time for everybody is probably in our favor because we came off the trailer with a couple of pretty good cars."

Dan Wheldon, whose No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda/Dallara has been closest to Hornish through the first three days of practice, followed by Hornish's teammate, Helio Castroneves.

Others expected to be in the mix Saturday include Ganassi's Scott Dixon, all five Andretti Green Racing drivers - Dario Franchitti, Bryan Herta, Tony Kanaan, Michael Andretti and Marco Andretti - Kosuke Matsuura, Scott Sharp, Tomas Scheckter, Vitor Meira, Danica Patrick and Buddy Rice.

Wheldon, who reached 226.088 mph on Thursday, won the race last year from 16th starting position.

"Sam is comfortably the quickest right now, certainly over a four-lap average," Wheldon said. "We've still got some work to do, but the good thing is each day we've made some gains."

Teams will have one more practice session Saturday morning before the qualifying session begins.

The first 11 positions are open to the fastest qualifiers. Once the 11 positions are filled, bumping will occur until the session ends, six hours later.

Positions 12 through 22 are available on Sunday.

Qualifying order for Pole Day at the 90th Indianapolis 500:

Pos  Car  Driver
 1.  92   Jeff Bucknum
 2.  90   Townsend Bell
 3.   4T  Vitor Meira
 4.   4   Vitor Meira
 5.  25   Marty Roth
 6.  31   Al Unser Jr.
 7.   7T  Bryan Herta
 8.   1T  Michael Andretti
 9.   5T  Buddy Lazier
10.   7   Bryan Herta
11.   3   Helio Castroneves
12.  41   Larry Foyt
14.  61   Arie Luyendyk Jr.
15.  91T  P.J. Chesson
16.  88   Airton Dare
17.  9T   Scott Dixon
18.  55   Kosuke Matsuura
19.   2   Tomas Scheckter
20.  90T  Townsend Bell
21.  51   Eddie Cheever Jr.
22.  55T  Kosuke Matsuura
23.  52   TBA
24.  15   Buddy Rice
25.   1   Michael Andretti
26.   9   Scott Dixon
27.  31T  Al Unser Jr.
28.  10T  Dan Wheldon
29.  51T  Eddie Cheever Jr.
30.  26T  Marco Andretti
31.   6T  Sam Hornish Jr.
32.  21   Jaques Lazier
33.  48   TBA
34.  27   Dario Franchitti
35.  93   TBA
36.  11   Tony Kanaan
37.  20   Ed Carpenter
38.  18   Thiago Medeiros
39.   8   Scott Sharp
40.  15T  Buddy Rice
41.  16   Danica Patrick
42.  26   Marco Andretti
43.  91   P.J. Chesson
44.   2T  Tomas Scheckter
45.  11T  Tony Kanaan
46.  14T  Felipe Giaffone
47.  27T  Dario Franchitti
48.  22   TBA
49.   6   Sam Hornish Jr.
50.  12   Jon Herb
51.  10   Dan Wheldon
52.  20T  Ed Carpenter
53.  17   Jeff Simmons
54.  21T  Jaques Lazier
55.   8T  Scott Sharp
56.  16T  Danica Patrick
57.   5   Buddy Lazier
58.  41T  Larry Foyt
59.  17T  Jeff Simmons
60.  14   Felipe Giaffone
61.  97   Stephan Gregoire
62.  3T   Helio Castroneves