Fernandez beats heat

"We're pretty confident after today's run," said Fernandez, who turned a lap of 218.257mph in the No. 5T Fernandez Racing Honda-powered Panoz G Force. "Yesterday I wasn't very happy. I know my competition and which ones I want to beat, and I didn't think my car was behaving the way it should in traffic yesterday. Today it was more consistent through the day."

Surprising, considering the 85-degree heat and 65 percent humidity. Fernandez edged Helio Castroneves' lap of 218.040mph in the No. 3T Marlboro Team Penske Dallara-Toyota. Fernandez's team-mate, Kosuke Matsuura, had the fourth-fastest lap (217.520mph) in the No. 55T Super Aguri Fernandez Racing G Force-Honda.

"I'm very comfortable," said Matsuura, who wasn't pleased with his run on Thursday. "I didn't expect this result. Our car has been very fast every day."

The heat and teams' focus on working with traffic and full-tank runs held speeds to their lowest levels since opening day, when Scott Dixon had the fastest lap - 219.760 mph.

"I'm confident our car is strong now," said Fernandez, whose 111 laps on Friday were second only to Vitor Meira's 120. "There are not many things left we need to test."

Bryan Herta was not injured when something in the rear end broke on his No. 7T Andretti Green Racing Dallara-Honda and sent the car spinning into the third-turn wall. Herta was not injured, but the crash was a serious setback for his Indy effort. Herta had to qualify the 7T on Sunday after his primary car crashed during Saturday's pole qualifying session.

"It felt like the right rear part of the car let go," Herta said. "I tried to save it and thought I could for a second. I thought I could let the car brush up against the wall, but it whipped around and we took the hit."

Buddy Lazier took 66 laps in the No. 24T Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara- Chevrolet in preparation for a qualifying attempt Sunday. Also practicing Friday was his brother, Jaques Lazier, who shook down AJ Foyt IV's backup car, giving way to speculation that he'll make a last-minute qualifying run for A.J. Foyt Racing.

Twenty-six cars have qualified for the race. With announcements on Thursday that Richie Hearn, Robby McGehee and Buddy Lazier would make attempts in Sunday's final day of qualifying, the magic number to reach the traditional 33-car starting field was lowered to two.