Weds practice: Foyt drivers on top

Airton Dare was fastest of the day at 228.628mph, while his team-mate, 1999 Indy Racing League champion Greg Ray, was second at 227.909mph in his Dallara-Chevrolet.

Foyt's drivers struggled for speed throughout the first week of practice, but Ray revealed that the team found a faulty shock absorber on his car that was affecting the handling.

"We didn't find the bad shock until Saturday night, and the car felt much better today," reported the Texan. "But we have to pull double duty and work on race set-ups along with qualifying set-ups. AJ has had a lot of success here and he's not used to struggling. We still don't have that magic pill for speed, but we have good race cars."

Shigeaki Hattori was the next non-qualified driver, going sixth at 227.120mph. Alex Barron was 10th at 225.962mph, while Team Green's Dario Franchitti and Paul Tracy were 24th and 34th respectively. Franchitti ran 224.684mph while Tracy managed 223.301mph late in the day.

Their team-mate Michael Andretti, who posted the second slowest qualifying speed on Pole Day, was still upbeat. Andretti eked 224.937mph out of his spare Dallara-Chevrolet.

"For sure we're worried about being bumped, and I'm still a little perplexed about what happened to us in qualifying," Andretti remarked. "We'll have our spare car ready to go in case we're in jeopardy. Hopefully some of the stuff I found today will help Dario and Paul in qualifying.

"I'm not worried about where we start as long as we're in the field," he added. "Our car is very good in race trim."