Scheckter Fastest as Practice Ends

Scheckter, driving the Panther Dallara Chevrolet, lapped the 2.5-mile oval in 39.5076 seconds with an average speed of 227.804 mph, underlining his credentials to be a contender for Saturday's MBNA Pole Day.

"I managed a couple of more laps at that speed as well," Scheckter said after practice. "It's a lot of hard work from everybody but knew we had something. I don't think we knew we had that much though, but it's always good to have a little bit more than you expect."

Tony Kanaan was second fastest with a lap of 227.191 mph. Danica Patrick, who led the field yesterday in her Rahal Letterman Panoz Honda, was third fastest with 226.769 mph.

Only 23 cars completed laps before the rain started to fall, 75 minutes into the session.

Indianapolis 500, Practice Day Four - Fastest Speeds

Pos  Car  Driver              Make-Engine        Speed(mph)
1.     4  Tomas Scheckter     Dallara-Chevrolet  227.804
2.    11  Tony Kanaan         Dallara-Honda      227.191
3.    16  Danica Patrick      Panoz-Honda        226.769
4.    6T  Sam Hornish Jr.     Dallara-Toyota     226.741
5.    27  Dario Franchitti    Dallara-Honda      226.454
6.    3T  Helio Castroneves   Dallara-Toyota     224.950
7.     5  Adrian Fernandez    Panoz-Honda        224.795
8.    37  Sebastien Bourdais  Panoz-Honda        224.764
9.     8  Scott Sharp         Panoz-Honda        224.640
10.    2  Tomas Enge          Dallara-Chevrolet  224.509
11.  33T  Ryan Briscoe        Panoz-Toyota       224.371
12.   9T  Scott Dixon         Panoz-Toyota       224.296
13.    7  Bryan Herta         Dallara-Honda      223.870
14.   55  Kosuke Matsuura     Panoz-Honda        223.841
15.   26  Dan Wheldon         Dallara-Honda      223.624
16.   36  Bruno Junqueira     Panoz-Honda        221.947
17.   51  Alex Barron         Dallara-Toyota     219.224
18.   83  Patrick Carpentier  Dallara-Toyota     218.884
19.   48  Larry Foyt          Panoz-Toyota       216.200
20.  20T  Jeff Ward           Dallara-Toyota     215.686
21.   25  Marty Roth          Dallara-Chevrolet  215.202
22.  91T  Paul Dana           Dallara-Toyota     214.908
23.   21  Jaques Lazier       Panoz-Toyota       134.394