Wheldon tops Texas night practice

Wheldon's best lap of 24.2744 seconds (215.783 mph) was less than two tenths of a second better than six other IndyCar Series regulars. Among them were Andretti Green's Danica Patrick, who was second-fastest at 214.884 mph, and Penske's Ryan Briscoe, who recorded a lap of 214.6752 mph. Ganassi duo Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon completed the top five.

Wheldon has a history of speed at Texas Motor Speedway but has not finished better than third three times and fourth once. Panther, meanwhile, has won five races at TMS - three with Sam Hornish Jr, two with Scott Goodyear and one with Tomas Scheckter.

"They've won a lot of races around here," Wheldon said. "Certainly with the times changing, it gets harder and harder to win races, but we rolled off the truck very fast.

"I've always gone very well here in terms of speed, I've just finished third and fourth a lot.

"You always see the picture in the newspaper on the Sunday after the race of the winner shooting the two guns. I've yet to do that. I'd quite like to do that. We don't have guns in England, so to shoot them for fun would be quite cool.

Helio Castroneves was sixth in Penske's second car, with Graham Rahal continuing his strong oval form in seventh for Newman/Haas/Lanigan. His team-mate Robert Doornbos had been fastest in the opening 45-minute session reserved for rookies and drivers outside the championship top ten.

Milka Duno (Dreyer & Reinbold), Alex Tagliani (Conquest) and Sarah Fisher (Sarah Fisher Racing) all made their first appearances since Indianapolis, and it was Duno who fared best - her ninth place on the timesheets one of her best ever IndyCar performances.

Tomas Scheckter, who drove Duno's #23 entry at Milwaukee last weekend, has stayed on with the team in the #43 machine used by John Andretti at Indianapolis. That gives Dreyer & Reinbold a three-car line-up for Texas, with Scheckter and Duno alongside full-season driver Mike Conway. The latter missed much of tonight's session while a fuel pump problem was cured.

Only 23 cars took part in practice, but the field will be up to 24 tomorrow when 3G rejoins the fray with veteran Jaques Lazier in place of Stanton Barrett. The team is present at Texas but opted not to participate in tonight's running.

The session ran without drama, only a single yellow for a track inspection interrupting the evening. Another practice hour follows on Friday afternoon before qualifying.

Pos  Driver             Team                 Time
 1.  Dan Wheldon        Panther              24.2744s
 2.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green       24.3759s  + 0.1015s
 3.  Ryan Briscoe       Penske               24.4023s  + 0.1279s
 4.  Dario Franchitti   Ganassi              24.4272s  + 0.1528s
 5.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi              24.4311s  + 0.1567s
 6.  Helio Castroneves  Penske               24.4411s  + 0.1667s
 7.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan  24.4510s  + 0.1766s
 8.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green       24.5033s  + 0.2289s
 9.  Milka Duno         Dreyer & Reinbold    24.5295s  + 0.2551s
10.  Marco Andretti     Andretti Green       24.5470s  + 0.2726s
11.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green       24.5550s  + 0.2806s
12.  Ed Carpenter       Vision               24.5702s  + 0.2958s
13.  Robert Doornbos    Newman/Haas/Lanigan  24.5964s  + 0.3220s
14.  AJ Foyt IV         Foyt                 24.6387s  + 0.3643s
15.  Raphael Matos      Luczo Dragon         24.6587s  + 0.3843s
16.  Alex Tagliani      Conquest             24.6757s  + 0.4013s
17.  Sarah Fisher       Fisher               24.6785s  + 0.4041s
18.  Ryan Hunter-Reay   Vision               24.7087s  + 0.4343s
19.  Mario Moraes       KV                   24.7088s  + 0.4344s
20.  Justin Wilson      Coyne                24.7108s  + 0.4364s
21.  Mike Conway        Dreyer & Reinbold    24.7477s  + 0.4733s
22.  Tomas Scheckter    Dreyer & Reinbold    24.7796s  + 0.5052s
23.  EJ Viso            HVM                  24.7915s  + 0.5171s
24.  Jaques Lazier      3G