Hornish fastest in final practice

Hornish, who had the fastest lap on Thursday during an open test session before crashing, didn't get the fastest lap Friday during practice sessions, which - because of rain later in the day - eventually served to line up the field for tonight's 250-lap race.

On Saturday afternoon in full race trim, however, Hornish's No. 6 Marlboro Team Penske Honda/Dallara was once again the fastest of the 19-car field, recording a lap of 16.5691 seconds - 162.954 mph - less than a tenth better than Vitor Meira and the No. 4 Panther Racing Honda/Dallara.

The only incident of the 30-minute session occurred in the opening minutes, when Buddy Rice lost control and hit the wall on the exit of Turn 4 in the No. 15 Rahal Letterman Racing Honda/Dallara.

"No one to blame but myself," Rice said. "Just stupid, really."

Among others posting top laps in Saturday's session were Tony Kanaan, Dario Franchitti, Dan Wheldon, Scott Dixon and Kosuke Matsuura.

Scott Sharp, who will start second in the race, had the eighth-fastest lap in Saturday's session, followed by pole winner Helio Castroneves.

Hornish will start third in Saturday's race, which is expected to be held under threatening skies. Forecasts call for scattered thunderstorms, with rain chances of 90 percent later in the night.

Wheldon, who had the fourth-fastest time in Friday's sessions, changed an engine on the No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda/Dallara.

However, since the engine was changed at the request of Honda engineers and not team officials, Wheldon will retain his starting position, IRL officials said.

Pos  Driver              Speed     Time     Laps
 1.  Sam Hornish Jr.     162.954   16.5691   54
 2.  Vitor Meira         161.346   16.7342   48
 3.  Tony Kanaan         160.700   16.8015   61
 4.  Dario Franchitti    159.838   16.8921   58
 5.  Dan Wheldon         159.796   16.8965   20
 6.  Scott Dixon         159.336   16.9453   43
 7.  Kosuke Matsuura     159.294   16.9498   50
 8.  Scott Sharp         158.664   17.0171   60
 9.  Helio Castroneves   158.092   17.0787   54
10.  Marco Andretti      157.682   17.1231   55
11.  Eddie Cheever Jr.   157.652   17.1263   57
12.  Bryan Herta         157.604   17.1315   60
13.  Buddy Lazier        157.225   17.1728   42
14.  Felipe Giaffone     156.808   17.2185   46
15.  Ed Carpenter        156.665   17.2342   50
16.  Tomas Scheckter     156.637   17.2373   55
17.  Jeff Simmons        156.554   17.2464   37
18.  Danica Patrick      156.291   17.2755   53
19.  Buddy Rice          152.896   17.6591   7