Practice: Meira sets pace, Hornish on fire

Meira reeled off a 23.6524s lap at 221.457mph in the opening 90-minute session, and Eddie Cheever was second overall on his first session lap of 23.6800s (221.199mph).

It was a tough day for Pennzoil Panther Racing as points leader Hornish lost the use of his primary car due to damage from a fire in the opening session, and spent the rest of thee day in his back-up, posting 12th-best time overall. It then got worse for the team when rookie Dan Wheldon, driving the team's No. 15 entry, spun in Turn Four and hit the wall with the left-front corner.

Wheldon climbed unhurt from the car and was immediately cleared to drive by Dr. Henry Bock, Indy Racing League director of medical services.

While his title rival had a somewhat problematic day, Castroneves had a more comfortable afternoon, setting sixth-best overall time in the second session.


1 Vitor Meira, Dallara-Chevrolet, 23.6524s
2 Eddie Cheever, Dallara-Infiniti, 23.6800s
3 Scott Sharp, Dallara-Chevrolet, 23.7193s
4 Al Unser Jr. Dallara-Chevrolet, 23.7340s
5 Buddy Rice, Dallara-Infiniti, 23.7592s
6 Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevrolet, 23.7843s
7 Alex Barron, Dallara-Chevrolet, 23.8042s
8 Sarah Fisher, Gforce-Infiniti, 23.8222s
9 Robbie Buhl, Gforce-Infiniti, 23.8259s
10 Felipe Giaffone, Gforce-Chevrolet, 23.8345s