Finally, when the track opened, there was a flurry of activity with 26 cars making laps on a washed-off racing surface.
Buddy Rice took his No. 15 A1 TEAM USA Honda Dallara to the 13th fastest speed for the Dreyer & Reinbold stable as Rice and his crew worked “race trim” on another hot afternoon with a speed of 222.696 miles per hour. In just over an hour on track, Rice drove his car for 30 laps.
Sarah Fisher improved her speed in the No. 5 AAMCO Transmissions Honda Dallara with a speed of 222.241 miles per hour in her second day back in Indy in three years. Fisher completed 34 laps on Wednesday.
Dan Wheldon took the top position for the second straight day with a speed of 226.391 m. p.h. in his Target Honda Dallara followed by Helio Castroneves at 225.929, Scott Dixon at 224.902, Marco Andretti at 224.745 and Tony Kanaan at 224.112.
Practice is scheduled for noon to 6 p. m. Thursday at the famed Brickyard with qualifications set for Saturday beginning at noon.
TEAM QUOTES:
BUDDY RICE (#15 A1 TEAM USA/Dreyer &Reinbold Racing Honda Dallara): “I am very happy with the car so far. I wasn’t sure if we were going to get any time on the track today. So we got in 30 laps and we are still on race trim. The track was good from all of the rain earlier. It was a little green but we ran similar settings as Tuesday. We were able to repeat the settings from yesterday. I think we have a very good race car. Now we just have to trim the car out for a qualifying setup. We are still learning each other here at Dreyer & Reinbold. JD (engineer John Dick) and I are really having good communication and that is important as you work throughout the month. I am happy with the progress so far. Some teams are after overall speed right now. That is not our strategy. We can run a big number when we trim out the car. But we need to get solid cat when the heat is up on the track. ”
SARAH FISHER (#5 AAMCO Transmissions/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Honda Dallara): “Today went really well for the AAMCO crew after a bit of a delay to get on track. We learned a lot more and all we can do is keep learning. I’m getting along really well with my engineer and we are communicating very well. We are both digging really hard because we know what we need to do to accomplish our goal. The car is running really well so of course everyone on the team is going to be happy when the car is good. Right now, we are learning together; asking each other the right questions and generating ideas to work off of. We’ve really jelled and we just keep working at it. We’ll keep getting better and better. “
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