Howard tops practice, Kanaan crashes
Sarah Fisher Racing's Jay Howard was quickest in morning practice ahead of the final Bump Day qualifying session at Indianapolis - but far more significant was that 2004 IndyCar champion Tony Kanaan crashed his back-up car early in the session and will face a race against time to qualify for this year's 500
Kanaan is among the drivers yet to earn a place in the field, having crashed heavily on his first qualifying run yesterday.
The Andretti Autosport was hoping to make the field today in his spare car, but spun at Turn 1 on his fourth lap this morning, eventually damaging all four corners of the #11T Dallara-Honda by the time it came to rest against the Turn 2 barrier.
The team is now working to repair the car using components salvaged from Kanaan's original #11 car yesterday and borrowed from team-mate Ryan Hunter-Reay's already-qualified #37 machine.
Howard came close to making the top 24 yesterday and looks in good shape for Bump Day, having lapped at 39.8307s and 225.956mph this morning.
KV Racing's Paul Tracy, also yet to make the grid, was second fastest, ahead of Simona de Silvestro - who did get in yesterday so was just getting extra pre-race practice mileage, as were Marco Andretti, Hideki Mutoh, Hunter-Reay, Dan Wheldon and Danica Patrick.
Bruno Junqueira finally took to the track in the second Fazzt car, which has not run so far while the team resolved sponsorship issues.
The Brazilian will go into final qualifying with just eight laps under his belt, but got straight up to a 224.385mph pace in his short run late in this morning's session.
Takuma Sato has been cleared to drive again following his practice accident yesterday, and was 12th fastest for KV Racing.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Jay Howard Sarah Fisher 39.8307s 2. Paul Tracy KV 39.9541s + 0.1234s 3. Simona de Silvestro HVM 39.9710s + 0.1403s 4. Vitor Meira Foyt 40.0525s + 0.2218s 5. Mario Romancini Conquest 40.0686s + 0.2379s 6. Alex Lloyd Dale Coyne 40.0701s + 0.2394s 7. Marco Andretti Andretti 40.0804s + 0.2497s 8. Bruno Junqueira Fazzt 40.1096s + 0.2789s 9. Sarah Fisher Sarah Fisher 40.1180s + 0.2873s 10. Sebastian Saavedra Herta 40.1775s + 0.3468s 11. Hideki Mutoh Newman/Haas 40.2297s + 0.3990s 12. Takuma Sato KV 40.3504s + 0.5197s 13. Milka Duno Dale Coyne 40.3850s + 0.5543s 14. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti 40.4819s + 0.6512s 15. Dan Wheldon Panther 40.5188s + 0.6881s 16. AJ Foyt IV Foyt 40.5728s + 0.7421s 17. Danica Patrick Andretti 40.8847s + 1.0540s 18. Tony Kanaan Andretti 41.0098s + 1.1791s
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