That and 50 cents will get you a Coke on Thursday.

While Andretti Green Racing and Team Penske bypassed any serious work
because of cold and windy conditions, Target Chip Ganassi Racing
topped the speed chart. Scott Dixon recorded the fastest lap of the
day -- 219.985 mph -- in the No. 9T Ganassi Dallara-Honda.

"On days like this, you wonder whether you should run or not," Dixon
said. "You're so limited on tires and engine miles. If you run when
everybody is running, you get more of a feel for what the car needs.
We didn't run too much because in the next couple of days we're going
to need the track time. It's almost like a rainout."

Penske drivers Sam Hornish Jr. and Helio Castroneves rolled out their
backups for a quick leak check, but didn't take the track in their
primary cars or get up to speed in the backups. All five Andretti
Green cars bagged the day, as 50-degree temperatures and a blustery
north wind are expected to give way to sunny skies and a high of 70 on
Friday.

"With it being so cold, it wasn't beneficial to run today," Tony
Kanaan said. "The temperature and weather look much better Friday,
Saturday and Sunday. And we expect that to be closer to the weather on
race day."

Others with solid laps Thursday included Darren Manning, who turned in
his top spot on the daily chart this month -- third -- with a lap of
219.116 mph in the No. 14 Foyt Enterprises Dallara-Honda. "We've got a
better car than what we qualified with," said Manning, who will start
15th in the May 27 race.

The Vision Racing cars also recorded strong laps, circling the 2.5-
mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval 56 times with a top lap of
218.230 mph by Tomas Scheckter. Teammates Ed Carpenter, Davey Hamilton
and A.J. Foyt IV followed Scheckter on the speed chart.

"The cars have so much downforce in these conditions that it can be
deceiving when you're working on race setups," Carpenter said. "We
just went out and worked on a list of things we wanted to test that
aren't altered by the weather or conditions."

Teams return to the track Friday before qualifying resumes Saturday
for the final 11 positions on the starting grid.

http://www.speedtv.com/articles/indycar/auto/37444/

"The cars have so much downforce in these conditions that it can be
deceiving when you're working on race setups,"


Translation: Our Grammas could drive these cars

Dave-E wrote:
Flat out, don't lift, stay awake.

On 18 May 2007 07:22:04 -0700, Dave-E <davegto67 (AT) aol (DOT) com> wrote:

That's what the 2000 winner said-BEFORE the race.