Long Beach: Franchitti fast, then crashes

The remains of Franchitti's Dallara Honda

Bob Heathcote/AR1.com

Ganassi Racing's Dario Franchitti turned the fastest lap in Saturday morning practice for Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach before crashing late in the session and taking the right front off the car. EJ Viso was close behind. Will Power, who moved over to the No. 12 Penske car, Scott Dixon, and Justin Wilson rounded out the top-5.

The remains of Mutoh's Dallara Honda

Gail Miller/AR1.com

Helio Castroneves, back from winning his tax evasion trial, was a respectable 7th, despite being out of the car since October.

Andretti Green Racing's Hideki Mutoh brought out a lengthy yellow when he lost control of his car exciting the right-hand Turn 9 at the end of the back straight. The backend stepped out on him and he over corrected. The car then snapped right and turned head-on into the wall. Mutoh was unhurt.

Results

Pos	Driver	Diff	Gap	Best Time	Best Speed
1	Dario Franchitti (10)	–.—-	–.—-	1:10.2789	100.810
2	EJ Viso (13)	0.0369	0.0369	1:10.3158	100.757
3	Will Power (12)	0.0878	0.0509	1:10.3667	100.684
4	Scott Dixon (9)	0.3100	0.2222	1:10.5889	100.367
5	Justin Wilson (18)	0.3108	0.0008	1:10.5897	100.366
6	Graham Rahal (02)	0.3592	0.0484	1:10.6381	100.297
7	Helio Castroneves (3)	0.3974	0.0382	1:10.6763	100.243
8	Mike Conway (24)	0.6277	0.2303	1:10.9066	99.917
9	Tony Kanaan (11)	0.7057	0.0780	1:10.9846	99.808
10	Danica Patrick (7)	0.7753	0.0696	1:11.0542	99.710
11	Dan Wheldon (4)	0.8443	0.0690	1:11.1232	99.613
12	Raphael Matos (2)	0.9008	0.0565	1:11.1797	99.534
13	Hideki Mutoh (27)	0.9226	0.0218	1:11.2015	99.504
14	Darren Manning (23)	1.0599	0.1373	1:11.3388	99.312
15	Robert Doornbos (06)	1.0978	0.0379	1:11.3767	99.259
16	Ryan Briscoe (6)	1.1815	0.0837	1:11.4604	99.143
17	Ryan Hunter-Reay (21)	1.3059	0.1244	1:11.5848	98.971
18	Mario Moraes (5)	1.3605	0.0546	1:11.6394	98.895
19	Vitor Meira (14)	1.3801	0.0196	1:11.6590	98.868
20	Marco Andretti (26)	1.4514	0.0713	1:11.7303	98.770
21	Alex Tagliani (34)	1.6204	0.1690	1:11.8993	98.538
22	Ed Carpenter (20)	1.8784	0.2580	1:12.1573	98.185
23	Stanton Barrett (98)	4.2129	2.3345	1:14.4918	95.108