Andretti Green remain the team to beat at Motegi

Tony Kanaan and his Andretti Green Racing team led the final practice at Twin Ring Motegi, proving again they are ready to be competitive in Saturday's race. After Danica Patrick led the second session on Thursday, Kanaan came out in the lone Friday session to best dominant Homestead winner, Dan Wheldon by just 26 thousandths of a second.

Danica was still quick, turning a lap of 26.8026 seconds (204.159mph) that placed her third on the chart, just ahead of Sam Hornish, Jr., and a surprisingly fast Tomas Scheckter. With Kanaan first, Danica third and Dario Franchitti and Marco Andretti timing in sixth and seventh, the AGR team appears to have found some consistency in their oval program.

In contrast to Thursday's cloudy, cold, windy conditions, today's practice was held under bright, clear skies and less gusty breezes in the mountains of Tochigi Prefecture.

Due to a change in IndyCar Series rules, today's practice is the last one for all drivers. Following this afternoon's qualifying session, the teams will not take to the track until race time on Saturday. ICS officials dropped the traditional final warm-up as a cost and equipment saving move.

The only incident of the session came when the struggling Jeff Simmons would spin coming off the fourth corner. Making a single long slow revolution, Simmons avoided contact with the barriers and when the car wound up pointed toward turn one, he merely picked a lower gear and drove around to the pits.

Motegi Practice Times
Pos Driver Diff Best Time Best Speed

1 Tony Kanaan (11) ... 26.7625 204.465
2 Dan Wheldon (10) 0.0269 26.7894 204.260
3 Danica Patrick (7) 0.0401 26.8026 204.159
4 Sam Hornish Jr (6) 0.0904 26.8529 203.777
5 Tomas Scheckter (2) 0.1156 26.8781 203.586
6 Dario Franchitti (27) 0.1224 26.8849 203.534
7 Marco Andretti (26) 0.1279 26.8904 203.493
8 Helio Castroneves (3) 0.1511 26.9136 203.317
9 Scott Dixon (9) 0.2155 26.9780 202.832
10 Kosuke Matsuura (55) 0.2166 26.9791 202.824
11 Ed Carpenter (20) 0.3157 27.0782 202.081
12 Scott Sharp (8) 0.3395 27.1020 201.904
13 AJ Foyt IV (22) 0.3462 27.1087 201.854
14 Vitor Meira (4T) 0.3777 27.1402 201.620
15 Buddy Rice (15) 0.4298 27.1923 201.233
16 Darren Manning (14) 0.6780 27.4405 199.413
17 Sarah Fisher (5) 0.6952 27.4577 199.288
18 Jeff Simmons (17) 0.7501 27.5126 198.891

ORS / CAPSIS International