Matsuura tops on Carb day

Drivers ran light shakedowns at conservative speeds and with the 88-hour, 14-day practice marathon behind them, teams and drivers are finally focused on the race itself.

"We did a few leak checks and ran a few laps in traffic," pole winner Buddy Rice said. "I think we'll be able to run up front with this setup."

Fernandez Racing cars again were on top of the chart, as they were consistently last week. Japanese rookie Kosuke Matsuura had the fastest lap of the two-hour session - 219.226mph in his Super Aguri Fernandez Racing Honda-powered Panoz G-Force. and team boss Adrian Fernandez had the second-fastest lap at 218.066mph. Scott Dixon was third-best in the Target/Chip Ganassi Racing G-Force/Toyota (217.391mph).

"After our qualifying effort, we wished that the race had been the next day," said Dixon, who will start 13th Sunday. "It feels good to have everything behind us."

Only two cars - Greg Ray's and Robby McGehee's - ran 40 or more laps during Thursday's session. Most others ran between 10 and 20 laps, with organization and mechanical soundness the primary issues.

"I've always heard that the month of May is like a puzzle and that you want to put all of the pieces together on Carb Day," said Vitor Meira, who had the fourth-fastest lap of the day. "Today, we did that."

Kosuke Matsuura G-Force/Honda 219.226mph
Adrian Fernandez G-Force/Honda 218.066mph
Scott Dixon G-Force/Toyota 217.391mph
Vitor Meira G-Force/Honda 217.172mph
Roger Yasukawa G-Force/Honda 217.119mph
Tony Kanaan Dallara/Honda 216.171mph
Greg Ray G-Force/Honda 215.908mph
Bruno Junqueira G-Force/Honda 215.861mph
Sam Hornish Dallara/Toyota 215.342mph
Darren Manning G-Force/Toyota 215.310mph