Again this weekend I will not be at the track, we will have a friend there from Ovalicious Winners Forum that should keep us posted and even provide some pictures as well I will be covering the race from the Ovalicious @ Home race central, using only information gathered from friends and sources within the public domain. Join me here on this page for a running recap of the Friday Practice sessions.
(8:20 AM EDT) Beware of the tow! It has always been the case that these IndyCars have been susceptible to the tow/draft effect from the cars in front of them. Though always an issue on an oval track; it has always been most prevalent at the largest and fastest tracks, like MID, TMS and the California Speedway. So as I mentioned below, we are about to learn what kind of a race we will see Sunday, and get some indication of power/speed gain on the Honda teams, Today's speeds won't be indicative of what we will see in "Q" runs Saturday. As in the past, that will probably be most obvious in the results of the G Force Toyota's, especially the results of Scott Dixon, probably the best draft-master IndyCar has; and how a New Zealander put himself in that position is beyond me to explain! To a lesser extent, 'the tow" will even be an issue with the G Force Honda speeds as well.
(3:00 EDT) Here are the final second session results from the "results only" page of IndyCar T&S! I will return later to sort out what it all means.

Pos

 

 Driver

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best Time

Best Speed

1

 

 Tony Kanaan (11)

 

 

 

 

 

 

33.5200

214.797

2

 

 Kosuke Matsuura (55)

 

 

 

 

 

 

33.5799

214.414

3

 

 Tomas Scheckter (4)

 

 

 

 

 

 

33.6013

214.277

4

 

 Buddy Rice (15)

 

 

 

 

 

 

33.6015

214.276

5

 

 Dan Wheldon (26)

 

 

 

 

 

 

33.7157

213.550

6

 

 Ed Carpenter (52)

 

 

 

 

 

 

33.7450

213.365

7

 

 Adrian Fernandez (5)

 

 

 

 

 

 

33.7463

213.357

8

 

 Vitor Meira (17)

 

 

 

 

 

 

33.7615

213.261

9

 

 Alex Barron (51)

 

 

 

 

 

 

33.7811

213.137

10

 

 Dario Franchitti (27)

 

 

 

 

 

 

33.7880

213.093

11

 

 Sam Hornish Jr. (6)

 

 

 

 

 

 

33.7921

213.068

12

 

 Felipe Giaffone (24)

 

 

 

 

 

 

33.8337

212.806

13

 

 Townsend Bell (2)

 

 

 

 

 

 

33.8706

212.574

14

 

 Bryan Herta (7)

 

 

 

 

 

 

33.8782

212.526

15

 

 Scott Dixon (1)

 

 

 

 

 

 

33.8828

212.497

16

 

 Mark Taylor (13)

 

 

 

 

 

 

33.8901

212.451

17

 

 A.J. Foyt IV (14)

 

 

 

 

 

 

33.9023

212.375

18

 

 Jaques Lazier (20)

 

 

 

 

 

 

33.9616

212.004

19

 

 Helio Castroneves (3)

 

 

 

 

 

 

33.9708

211.947

20

 

 Scott Sharp (8)

 

 

 

 

 

 

33.9986

211.773

21

 

 Tora Takagi (12)

 

 

 

 

 

 

34.0159

211.666

22

 

 Darren Manning (10)

 

 

 

 

 

 

34.1474

210.851

(2:30 EDT) With the track back to green flag running, Buddy Rice has become the 4th driver above 214 mph. It didn't take very long for the Foyt result to be eclipsed by many other cars as well, but only Hornish and Dixon are better with Toyota engines. T&S indicates that the track is under caution foe a two in of the #3 MTP car of Helio Castroneves. With "3 minutes to green" now they have already gone past the expected checkered flag time, so when they do resume running, it won't be for long. Helio ran his car out of fuel. Green again, 2-minuts of running remain. That's it, session over, no new members of the 214 mph club, more later.
(2:20 EDT) With the caution flag out for a track inspection, AJ Foyt IV has the fastest Toyota of the session, with a 212, a nice increase over his morning practice result. I minute to green!
(2:10 EDT) Green flag running again, with Buddy Rice still at the top of the page. It appears they let all the cars out on the track early after an abbreviated first group run; and they are all out there now with 30 minutes of running left. It may have taken all day, but Tony Kanaan is now the speed leader with a 214.7. There are two other cars above 214 as well, Matsuura and Scheckter, all three above Scheckter's first session speed.
(2:05 EDT) IndyCar is indicating that the track is under caution due to "moderate contact by T Bell with the second turn SAFER barrier." It mustn't taken long to clean up, they are now showing 3 minutes to green!
(2:00 EDT) Tomas Scheckter missed the first ten minutes of the session, but ended up 2nd to Ed Carpenter as the 2nd group hit the track and Buddy Rice went to the top of the chart right away. The speeds are still in the 213 mph range.
(1:45 EDT) When the cars return to the track, keep in mind that the entire field was within one second from top to bottom, so even though the spread is a little over 5-mph, it is still a tightly bunched field. The cars are on the track now!
(1:30 EDT) This is the scheduled start time for the second IndyCar practice session but IndyCar T&S is showing the 11 MIPS cars on the track until 1;35. The good news is that they are out there and running, so the track is dry. Expect the first group of the 2nd practice session to be on the track at 1:45. In this group, listed by engines, are Scheckter, Bell, Lazier, Giaffone and Carpenter with Chevy's, Taylor, Fernandez and Matsuura with G Force Honda's and Sharp, Takagi and Foyt IV with Dallara Toyota's.
(1:00 EDT) The T&S page lists the next session to be MIPS practice at 1:10, so obviously things aren't running as scheduled. The NASCAR CTS page indicates that Truck Series practice was at least rain shortened, so I don't expect IndyCar practice to rune as scheduled. I will continue to watch IndyCar T&S for further updates.
Here are the final results from the first practice session, taken from IndyCar T&S, (results only page) 

Pos

 

 Driver

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best Time

Best Speed

1

 

 Tomas Scheckter (4)

 

 

 

 

 

 

33.6389

214.038

2

 

 Tony Kanaan (11)

 

 

 

 

 

 

33.7141

213.560

3

 

 Townsend Bell (2)

 

 

 

 

 

 

33.7211

213.516

4

 

 Vitor Meira (17)