Penske boys top day 1 of practice

Sam Hornish Jr. had the fastest lap of the rain-shortened day - the first practice day for the entire field.

Hornish lapped the 'brickyard' over at 224.811 mph in the No. 6T Penske Honda/Dallara, but he and teammate Helio Castroneves, using both primary and T-cars, scored three other laps among the top six.

Castroneves had the second-best and sixth-best, while Hornish also had the fifth-fastest lap of the day in his primary car.

"That's all it took to get the T-cars running that fast," Hornish said. "When we got back out there with the primary cars, we couldn't quite get that speed. But to have both of the cars in the top five and to be 1-2 with Helio, that's a pretty good day."

The initial speeds during Tuesday's opening day also indicated that Saturday's battle for the pole position might come down to Penske and Target Chip Ganassi Racing, as Ganassi drivers Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon were the only drivers to break up Tuesday's Penske party.

Wheldon, last year's race winner, had the third-fastest lap of the session - 223.916 mph - in the No. 10 Ganassi Honda/Dallara, while Dixon had the fourth-best lap - 223.797 mph - in the No. 9 Ganassi Honda/Dallara.

But the Penske cars were the talk of Gasoline Alley not long after the green flag waved and Hornish nearly reached 225 mph on his eighth lap in the T-car.

Castroneves was clocked at 224.108 mph in his No. 3T Penske Honda/Dallara at about the same time Hornish hit his top speed.

The team then parked the backup cars, pulled the engines and put them in the primary cars, which proved nearly as fast in the heat of the day.

In all, Hornish and Castroneves circled the track just 57 times in the four cars, in part because of new rules limiting teams to one engine and 1,200 miles before qualifying.

"Everybody is really focused and working together," said Castroneves, who has won two of the first three IRL IndyCar Series races this season and leads the points standing.

"Both cars are fast, and I think obviously a lot of people are going to work toward being fast. We feel very comfortable. We've got the rhythm back. We're expecting to go much faster, but it's all about weather and track conditions."

Also showing speed today were Tomas Scheckter, who had the seventh-best lap of the day in the No. 2 Vision Racing Honda/Dallara; 2004 Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice, the fastest Panoz of the day at 222.762 in the Rahal Letterman Racing Honda/Panoz; and Scott Sharp, ninth-fastest in the No. 8 Delphi Fernandez Racing Honda/Dallara.

Townsend Bell, fastest among the rookies and veterans who completed orientation and refreshers yesterday, was 10th fastest today in the No. 90 Vision Racing Honda/Dallara.

In all, 26 cars and 24 drivers participated in the session, which was cut short by an hour because of rain.

The session was particularly busy - 989 laps total - because of the threat of rain for the remainder of the week leading to Saturday's first qualifying session, which will determine the pole winner and the first 11 starting positions.

The new rules were expected to limit the amount of practice activity leading up to qualifying, but the anticipation of rain has thrown a new curve at teams.

"We ran about 1,500 miles last year before qualifying, so we'll cut down quite a bit from where we had been," Hornish said.

"The only problem you have to work around is that you don't save a bunch of miles to use, but then it starts raining and you never get to use them. You have to be really careful about how much you run and when you run."

Practice is scheduled to resume tomorrow, but rain is forecasted throughout the day and on Thursday, too.

Weather for Saturday's qualifying session appears to be better, with temperatures in the mid-60s under partly cloudy skies.

Pos  Driver             Make           Speed (mph)
 1.  Sam Hornish Jr     Dallara-Honda  224.811
 2.  Helio Castroneves  Dallara-Honda  224.106
 3.  Dan Wheldon        Dallara-Honda  223.916
 4.  Scott Dixon        Dallara-Honda  223.797
 5.  Tomas Scheckter    Dallara-Honda  223.183
 6.  Buddy Rice         Panoz-Honda    222.762
 7.  Scott Sharp        Dallara-Honda  222.752
 8.  Townsend Bell      Dallara-Honda  222.545
 9.  Bryan Herta        Dallara-Honda  222.414
10.  Ed Carpenter       Dallara-Honda  222.365
11.  Jeff Simmons       Panoz-Honda    222.292
12.  Vitor Meira        Dallara-Honda  222.246
13.  Tony Kanaan        Dallara-Honda  221.986
14.  Marco Andretti     Dallara-Honda  221.939
15.  Dario Franchitti   Dallara-Honda  221.831
16.  Eddie Cheever Jr   Dallara-Honda  221.470
17.  Kosuke Matsuura    Dallara-Honda  221.435
18.  Michael Andretti   Dallara-Honda  220.710
19.  Danica Patrick     Panoz-Honda    220.302
20.  Felipe Giaffone    Dallara-Honda  218.812
21.  Buddy Lazier       Dallara-Honda  218.161
22.  Al Unser Jr        Dallara-Honda  218.133
23.  P.J. Chesson       Dallara-Honda  216.195
24.  Marty Roth         Dallara-Honda  213.223