Hornish fastest on day 2

Fifteen cars were on the track as the green flag waved to signal the start of the second practice session of the month.

By the time rain forced an early end to the session, three and a half hours later, 23 cars had combined for 952 laps.

The fastest of those belonged to Sam Hornish Jr., one of three drivers to top 225 mph for the first time.
 
Hornish, who also had the fastest lap yesterday during the opening day of practice for the entire field, was timed at 225.056 mph in the No. 6 Marlboro Team Penske Honda/Dallara.

"We were trying to go out and do four timed laps consecutively, and a car came out of the pits on the last of the four laps in front of us, so we got a little bit of a tow on the backstretch," Hornish said.

"I think our second-best lap was still good enough to put us here anyhow. We're really happy about where we're at so far."

While Hornish has won two IRL IndyCar Series championships, he has struggled at Indianapolis. His best finish in six Indy 500 starts is 14th. He's crashed out of three of those six races, and he had a mechanical issue in another.

Last year, Hornish started second and led 77 laps before crashing with 54 laps remaining. As the dominant driver after the first two days of practice, Hornish is keeping his cool.

"It's pretty exciting, but we know nothing really matters until race day," Hornish said. "We're going to try to continue to go through the paces and not cross our feet and fall down on our faces. We're just trying to go out there and move forward."

On Tuesday, Hornish had two of the five fastest laps of the day, including the fastest (224.811 mph) in his backup car.

In today's rain-shortened session, using his primary car, Hornish topped Dan Wheldon's lap of 225.636 mph set earlier in the day in the No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda/Dallara.

"We were expecting the rain, so we had to utilize the track time that we had as best we possibly could," Wheldon said.

"I definitely think we improved the race car. The rear end feels so much more secure, which is good, and the car is comfortable. We're still just working for a little bit more speed."

The only incident of the day happened just a few laps after the green flag, when Jeff Simmons lost control of the No. 17 Rahal Letterman Racing Honda/Panoz and hit the wall on the exit of Turn 1.

Simmons was not injured, and the car was lightly damaged.

"I was fine until I got in the corner and started to release the car," Simmons explained. "Then I felt a twitch and the rear end started to come around.

"When it started to slide, I thought I might be able to get away with it and not hit the wall. Then a rear tire went flat, and as I tried to straighten the car, I got the front end into the wall.

"It clipped the nose and banged it up pretty well."

Practice is scheduled to resume tomorrow, but forecasts call for more rain. The first day of qualifying, which will determine the first 11 starting positions for the May 28 race, is scheduled for Saturday.

Pos  Driver             Make           Speed (mph)
 1.  Sam Hornish Jr.    Dallara-Honda  226.056
 2.  Dan Wheldon        Dallara-Honda  225.636
 3.  Kosuke Matsuura    Dallara-Honda  225.140
 4.  Tony Kanaan        Dallara-Honda  224.500
 5.  Bryan Herta        Dallara-Honda  224.292
 6.  Helio Castroneves  Dallara-Honda  224.258
 7.  Scott Sharp        Dallara-Honda  223.997
 8.  Scott Dixon        Dallara-Honda  223.830
 9.  Dario Franchitti   Dallara-Honda  223.422
10.  Marco Andretti     Dallara-Honda  223.291
11.  Tomas Scheckter    Dallara-Honda  223.106
12.  Danica Patrick     Panoz-Honda    223.084
13.  Vitor Meira        Dallara-Honda  222.934
14.  Michael Andretti   Dallara-Honda  222.536
15.  Buddy Rice         Panoz-Honda    222.334
16.  Townsend Bell      Dallara-Honda  221.659
17.  Eddie Cheever Jr.  Dallara-Honda  221.631
18.  Ed Carpenter       Dallara-Honda  220.661
19.  Jeff Simmons       Panoz-Honda    220.033
20.  Buddy Lazier       Dallara-Honda  218.664
21.  Al Unser Jr.       Dallara-Honda  218.058
22.  P.J. Chesson       Dallara-Honda  215.792
23.  Marty Roth         Dallara-Honda  213.007