Hornish, Wheldon on top on day 3

Hornish, who had the fastest laps Tuesday and Wednesday, topped out at 226.789 mph in the No. 6 Marlboro Team Penske Honda/Dallara, little more than a tenth of a second faster than Wheldon's best lap (226.088 mph).

In spite of running just 91 laps in three days, Hornish has established himself as the fastest of the fast.

"We're holding a little bit of an advantage, but we're out there doing a little bit more than what some of the other people are doing," Hornish said.

"We're making sure the car is good for four laps (of qualifying). That's one thing we have here that we don't have at other tracks. This is 10 miles of qualifying.

"It's quite difficult to keep the car handling the same way for that run, especially when you've got it right on the edge."

Weather conditions changed dramatically from the first two days of full-field practice, when temperatures neared 70 degrees.

Thursday's temperature hovered in the mid-50s, and conditions are expected to remain cool, overcast and possibly wet through the weekend.

Among the fastest laps were Hornish's teammate Helio Castroneves, Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon, Andretti Green Racing's Dario Franchitti, Bryan Herta, Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti and Michael Andretti.

After one more six-hour practice session Friday, qualifying is scheduled to begin Saturday. The first 11 positions are up for grabs Saturday, while positions 12 through 22 are open Sunday.

Pos  Driver             Make           Speed (mph)
 1.  Sam Hornish Jr     Dallara-Honda  226.789
 2.  Dan Wheldon        Dallara-Honda  226.088
 3.  Helio Castroneves  Dallara-Honda  225.547
 4.  Scott Dixon        Dallara-Honda  225.309
 5.  Dario Franchitti   Dallara-Honda  224.742
 6.  Bryan Herta        Dallara-Honda  223.925
 7.  Tony Kanaan        Dallara-Honda  223.905
 8.  Marco Andretti     Dallara-Honda  223.606
 9.  Michael Andretti   Dallara-Honda  223.187
10.  Tomas Scheckter    Dallara-Honda  222.241
11.  Ed Carpenter       Dallara-Honda  221.848
12.  Townsend Bell      Dallara-Honda  221.695
13.  Danica Patrick     Panoz-Honda    221.069
14.  Buddy Rice         Panoz-Honda    220.136
15.  Jeff Simmons       Panoz-Honda    218.111
16.  Felipe Giaffone    Dallara-Honda  217.777
17.  Buddy Lazier       Dallara-Honda  216.897
18.  Marty Roth         Dallara-Honda  208.447