Indy practice washed out

Showers began shortly after practice began, and cars never returned to the track. Tony Kanaan has the fastest speed of the week of practice, a 222.668mph lap Wednesday in his Andretti Green Racing Honda-powered Dallara.

"It is going to be an interesting day on Saturday," Kanaan said. "We'll have a few qualifying attempts plus some practice in the morning, so I'm excited."

About the only drama during Friday's rainout was the draw for Saturday's qualifying order. Ed Carpenter drew the favourable No. 1 position, while Robby Gordon received a timely break with the No. 2 position. Carpenter said he's likely to use his back-up car for qualifying, so Gordon could be the first car on the track when qualifying begins.

Gordon was in Richmond for Friday night's NASCAR Busch race. He'll be back at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for qualifying, then return to Richmond for Saturday night's NASCAR Nextel Cup race. He will compete in the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte on May 30.

"I don't feel that it's a distraction," Gordon said. "I find sponsorship to do it to be competitive in all of the series. If I didn't think I could go to the Indianapolis 500 and have a shot at the pole, I wouldn't do it.

Other drivers drawing favourable early positions included both Marlboro Team Penske primary cars. Sam Hornish Jr. has the sixth position, and Helio Castroneves has the eighth position. Gordon's back-up car has the No. 7 spot.

The weather dampened efforts over the final two days of practice, but the rain is expected to move out of central Indiana - along with warm temperatures - in time for Saturday. However, morning rain might affect the final practice session, a two-hour tune-up scheduled to begin at 8am local time.

The rainout left teams without a chance to try 11th-hour tweaks to the IRL IndyCar Series' new engine/chassis package, which has dropped the top speeds about 9mph behind Helio Castroneves' pole-winning lap last year.

"It's a shame that we didn't have a full day to try things with the car, but I'm confident in the direction the team is headed," Carpenter said. "Tomorrow we have two hours to prepare so we'll focus on making the best use of our time. Everyone is dealing with the same conditions, so we're all in the same boat."

The favourites for the pole include Kanaan, who started second last year; Castroneves, who was fastest on two of the five practice days; Dan Wheldon, who has the second-fastest lap of the week; and Sam Hornish Jr., who just missed breaking the 221 barrier in difficult conditions Thursday.

"We were able to break the 220 mark for the first time this week," Hornish said. Having said that, pole day often throws us a curve ball with respect to track and/or weather conditions."

Also capable of winning the pole are Adrian Fernandez, whose 221.705 mph practice lap is believed to be the fastest attained without benefit of a draft; Fernandez's team-mate, Kosuke Matsuura, who posted the third-fastest lap of the week; and Scott Dixon, who recorded the fourth fastest lap during Wednesday's practice, the quickest session of the week.

"I now know what to expect having been through it for the first time last year," Dixon said. "I think aiming for a top five is realistic. It's a shame we didn't get to running a few more qualifying simulations today because of the rain, but we've done a lot of work this week, found some things we liked and feel pretty positive about qualifying."

Honda appears to have an edge over rivals Toyota and Chevrolet heading into qualifying. Honda drivers had the five fastest laps during the weeklong practice. Castroneves had Toyota's fastest lap (sixth-best overall), and Tomas Scheckter was the fastest for Chevy (13th best overall).

All three Rahal Letterman Racing cars were among the top 10 for the week, led by Roger Yasukawa's 221.248 mph effort Wednesday. RLR team-mates Vitor Meira and Buddy Rice expect to challenge for a front-row position during Saturday's seven-hour session.

Beginning with the 500, IRL engine displacement has been lowered from 3.5 litres to 3.0. League officials also mandated a curved skid plate, which raised the ride height by 10 millimetres. Other changes implemented at Indy include a reverse wicker on the rear wing and a vertical centerline wicker. The changes were designed to prevent accidents like the one that injured Kenny Brack in last year's season finale at Texas and the test crash at Indy that killed Tony Renna.