Kanaan seems at ease in Iowa

The field continued to tighten through the final hour of practice for the Iowa Corn Indy 250, but when it was all said and done, Tony Kanaan was still on top with a lap of 17.5614 seconds (183.267 miles per hour).

Helio Castroneves was again second-quickest while Jeff Simmons continued his strong weekend with a jump to third quickest.

Dario Franchitti, Sam Hornish, Jr., and Vitor Meira rounded out the top six after IRL officials split the drivers into two groups, each getting a single hour on the track. The spread from first to 19th was just .6980 seconds. Rookie Milka Duno continued to struggle and placed last on the time sheet.

The first eight cars were within one tenth of a second, while 0.267 covered the top 18 cars.

With just nine and ten cars in each group, traffic was much lighter than the earlier session, allowing drivers to spend more time working on qualifying set-ups. Interestingly, drafting and catching a tow played a role in some quick times as the huge rear wings employed at Iowa became a disadvantage down the front straightaway.

The downforce is necessary for flat-out cornering, which most teams have achieved, but following another fast car and allowing them to break a hole in the air was a time sheet advantage during the practice session.

In spite of weather forecasts that called for temperatures in the 90's, a stalled cold front has left the track covered by clouds and with a temperature of just 70 degrees. Humidity of 83% is causing 10-foot-long condensation trails to stream off the rear wings, sometimes reaching back to closely pursuing competitors.

IndyCar Series qualifying will be the final pre-race activity, taking place at 5:15pm local time. Tomorrow's race will start at noon, and pursuant to new IRL standards, there will be no final warm-up.

IndyCar Series Practice #2 - Iowa Speedway

Pos Driver                  Diff    Best Time    Best Speed

1   Tony Kanaan (11)         ...    17.5613      183.267
2   Helio Castroneves (3) 0.0114    17.5727      183.148
3   Jeff Simmons (17)     0.0350    17.5963      182.902
4   Dario Franchitti (27) 0.0479    17.6092      182.768
5   Sam Hornish Jr (6)    0.0513    17.6126      182.733
6   Vitor Meira (4)       0.0585    17.6198      182.658
7   Dan Wheldon (10)      0.0664    17.6277      182.576
8   Buddy Rice (15)       0.0785    17.6398      182.451
9   Ed Carpenter (20)     0.1072    17.6685      182.155
10  Danica Patrick (7)    0.1136    17.6749      182.089
11  Darren Manning (14)   0.1144    17.6757      182.080
12  Marco Andretti (26)   0.1412    17.7025      181.805
13  AJ Foyt IV (22)       0.1420    17.7033      181.797
14  Scott Dixon (9)       0.1561    17.7174      181.652
15  Tomas Scheckter (2)   0.2099    17.7712      181.102
16  Sarah Fisher (5)      0.2518    17.8131      180.676
17  Scott Sharp (8)       0.2620    17.8233      180.573
18  Kosuke Matsuura (55)  0.2778    17.8391      180.413
19  Milka Duno (23)       0.6980    18.2593      176.261

ORS / CAPSIS International