Castroneves tops practice 2 in St. Pete

Helio Castroneves (right) turned his fastest lap of the day minutes before the checkered flag fell to lead practice as IndyCar® Series teams began preparations for the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on April 1.

Castroneves, the defending winner of the event, lapped the 14-turn, 1.8-mile street circuit in 1 minute, 1.6016 seconds, 105.192 mph, in his No. 3 Team Penske Honda-powered Dallara. Andretti Green Racing's Tony Kanaan, a podium finisher in each of the two previous events in St. Petersburg, was second-quick with a lap of 1:01.6892, 105.043 mph.

Overall, the top four drivers were quicker than Dario Franchitti's 2006 track record. Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon was third while Franchitti was fourth. Marco Andretti was fifth, and 2005 winner Dan Wheldon was sixth.

Single-car qualifying will take place Saturday afternoon followed by the Firestone Fast Six, a 10-minute shootout among the top six cars for the pole position.

Pos Car Driver Team Time To 1st
1. 3 Helio Castroneves Team Penske 1:01.6016
2. 11 Tony Kanaan Andretti Green Racing 1:01.6892 0.0876
3. 9 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 1:01.8767 0.2751
4. 27 Dario Franchitti Andretti Green Racing 1:02.0060 0.4044
5. 26 Marco Andretti Andretti Green Racing 1:02.5648 0.9632
6. 10 Dan Wheldon Chip Ganassi Racing 1:02.6648 1.0632
7. 55 Kosuke Matsuura Super Aguri Panther Racing 1:02.7769 1.1753
8. 6 Sam Hornish Jr Team Penske 1:02.7824 1.1808
9. 2 Tomas Scheckter Vision Racing 1:02.7835 1.1819
10. 14 Darren Manning AJ Foyt Enterprises 1:02.8449 1.2433
11. 4 Vitor Meira Delphi Panther Racing 1:02.9049 1.3033
12. 7 Danica Patrick Andretti Green Racing 1:03.0078 1.4062
13. 15 Buddy Rice Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 1:03.7456 2.1440
14. 17 Jeff Simmons Rahal Letterman Racing 1:04.0690 2.4674
15. 8 Scott Sharp Rahal Letterman Racing 1:04.2465 2.6449
16. 22 A J Foyt IV Vision Racing 1:04.7126 3.1110
17. 20 Ed Carpenter Vision Racing 1:04.7866 3.1850
18. 5 Sarah Fisher Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 1:06.8229 5.2213