After Motegi - Wheldon and Kanaan battle again

Dan Wheldon just nipped Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon as the IndyCar Series opened practice at the Kansas Speedway. The current IndyCar Series point leader, Wheldon circled the 1.5mile D-shaped oval in 25.6846 seconds (213.046mph).

Danica Patrick was fourth fastest, and combined with Kanaan's run showed that Andretti Green Racing may again be on a track where they can run with the Ganassi and Penske cars.

Unfortunately for the entire field, Wheldon's fast time appeared to come with relative ease and his team-mate, Scott Dixon was third quick.

Other notable times were turned in by Darren Manning who was eighth and Milka Duno in 20th. Normally one of the slowest cars on superspeedways, Manning's Foyt Racing Team has been spending considerable time in the wind tunnel and it appears they have found a little of the overall speed they had been missing.

Rookie Milka Duno has been the center of attention so far as teams and officials nervously kept track of her first ever practice with other cars on the track. So far, Duno is doing okay, and many concerns have been alleviated. While not fast, she has done consistent and improving speeds and is only six tenths of a second behind Wheldon.

After being granted permission to run in both practice groups so she could get more time around other cars, Duno's SAMAX prepared car had a water line fail which in the end got her about the hour of practice she would normally have been given.

Trailing Duno in the session was Alex Barron who had fuel pump issues that limited his track time.

Practice 1 times from Kansas
1 Dan Wheldon (10) ... 25.6846 213.046
2 Tony Kanaan (11) 0.0601 25.7447 212.549
3 Scott Dixon (9) 0.0749 25.7595 212.426
4 Danica Patrick (7) 0.1536 25.8382 211.779
5 Helio Castroneves (3) 0.1559 25.8405 211.761
6 Sam Hornish Jr (6) 0.2095 25.8941 211.322
7 Vitor Meira (4) 0.2375 25.9221 211.094
8 Darren Manning (14) 0.2392 25.9238 211.080
9 Tomas Scheckter (2) 0.2430 25.9276 211.049
10 Sarah Fisher (5) 0.2500 25.9346 210.992
11 Dario Franchitti (27) 0.2683 25.9529 210.843
12 Marco Andretti (26) 0.2800 25.9646 210.748
13 AJ Foyt IV (22) 0.3473 26.0319 210.204
14 Ed Carpenter (20) 0.3494 26.0340 210.187
15 Buddy Rice (15) 0.3839 26.0685 209.909
16 Scott Sharp (8) 0.4637 26.1483 209.268
17 Marty Roth (25) 0.4978 26.1824 208.995
18 Jeff Simmons (17) 0.5032 26.1878 208.952
19 Kosuke Matsuura (55) 0.5038 26.1884 208.947
20 Milka Duno (23) 0.6023 26.2869 208.165
21 Alex Barron (98) 0.6396 26.3242 207.870.

ORS / CAPSIS International