Patrick Fastest in Practice; Lazier May Drop to 33rd

Heralded rookie Danica Patrick, the fastest thing on wheels for most of the month here, continued her scene stealing Friday, turning in the fastest Carb Day speed for Sunday’s 89th Indianapolis 500.

Patrick had a fast lap of 225.597 in her Honda-powered Panoz as 32 of the 33 drivers worked through the final practice session with full fuel loads, scuffing in tires.

The 33rd driver, 1996 500 winner Buddy Lazier, had intended to join them for the hour of track time, but a mechanical malfunction threw his car into the wall coming out of the fourth turn minutes after the session began, before Lazier was even up to speed.

Lazier was unhurt, but his Panther Racing Dallara-Chevrolet was heavily damaged. His crew was trying to repair it so he wouldn’t have to start from the rear of the field in his backup car Sunday. He qualified ninth, so he would lose 24 positions by starting last.

“I entered Turn 4 on my first at-speed lap and I heard a click, a big snap, and it just took off to the wall,” Lazier said.

Patrick, meanwhile, turned her top speed on the 12th of her 19 laps around the 2.5-mile rectangular oval. Pole sitter Tony Kanaan was second fastest in a Dallara-Honda at 225.451 and his Andretti-Green teammate Dan Wheldon was third at 225.262.

“We weren’t trying to come out here and be the fastest, but it’s always good to be,” Patrick said. “It’s good for confidence and it’s good to see that your car can do it. ...

“I think it’s good that we were fastest and I think there were some people trying to go fastest there at the end and we still stuck there.

“I ran a majority by myself and ... I noticed the car felt a little bit different, so when we stopped in the middle [of the session] and made an adjustment, it felt a little bit better. That’s kind of where we were at with this car and we stayed right there. When it’s happy, it’s happy, whether it’s got fuel in it or not.”

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Penske Racing, with driver Sam Hornish Jr. and his crew doing the honors, won the annual pit-stop contest for a record eighth time.

In the 29th Checkers/Rally’s Pit Stop Challenge, the Hornish crew beat Andretti-Green’s Bryan Herta crew, changing four tires and simulating adding fuel with a time of 8.9704 seconds. The victory was worth $30,000.

Herta’s crew had a time of 9.9170 and won $15,000.

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Pole sitter Jaime Camara won an accident-scarred, rain-interrupted Futaba Freedom 100-mile race in the Indy Racing League’s development series, the Infiniti Pro Series.

The Brazilian out-sprinted New Zealander Wade Cunningham in a quarter-lap shootout on the last of 40 laps around Indianapolis Motor Speedway, winning by a car length as they took the green and checkered flags together after the last of three accidents had been cleared.

A shower shortly after the race had begun stopped things briefly.

Camara averaged 146.781 mph in winning for the first time in the series. Al Unser, son of two-time 500-winner Al Unser Jr., was fourth, behind Jay Drake. Marco Andretti, son of Michael and grandson of 1969 500-winner Mario, was involved in a three-car accident and finished 16th in the 18-car field.

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Tom Carnegie, longtime public-address announcer at the speedway, will call the 500 Sunday for the 60th consecutive time.

There was some doubt about that Wednesday, when Carnegie, 85, felt ill at the track and was taken to Methodist Hospital. He was released Thursday, after being treated for dehydration.

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Lazier has fond memories of his 500 victory in 1996, but one of his favorites sprang from the ’92 race.

“I was driving a Buick[-powered car] and, late in the race, the engine blew and flooded the cockpit with boiling oil,” he recalled. “Naturally, I got out of there as fast as I could and TV showed me out of the car and [patting myself down].

“When I got home [to Vail, Colo.], every stop sign had a pair of boxer shorts hanging, boxers with two holes burned in them. That’s when I knew I had some local support.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

The facts

Indianapolis 500 at a glance:

* Race: Sunday, 9 a.m., Ch. 7.

* Track: Indianapolis Motor Speedway (rectangular oval, 2.5 miles, 9 degrees banking in turns).

* Distance: 500 miles, 200 laps.

* Last IRL race: England’s Dan Wheldon became the first IndyCar Series driver to win three of the first four races of a season on April 30. Wheldon successfully defended his Indy Japan 300 title after leader Tomas Scheckter ran out of fuel with two laps to go. Wheldon easily held off Scott Sharp by 3.4612 seconds on the Honda-built 1.5-mile Twin Ring Motegi oval.

* Last year: Buddy Rice recorded his first career victory at the rain-shortened Indianapolis 500 and became the first American to win the event since Eddie Cheever in 1998. Rice took the lead at Lap 172 and was still in front when another storm ended the race eight laps later.

* Fast facts: The race has taken place every year since 1911, except for when the United States was in World War I (1917-18) and World War II (1942-45).... Tony Kanaan won the pole May 22 with a speed of 227.566 mph.... Danica Patrick became the fourth female to qualify after recording the fourth-highest speed of 227.004 mph.... A.J. Foyt IV, 21, is the youngest driver this year. His grandfather, team owner A.J. Foyt, shares the race record of four wins with Al Unser and Rick Mears.

* Next race: Bombardier 500, June 11, Fort Worth.

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Source: Associated Press