Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti has never started on the front row in the US classic but the Scotsman is threatening to claim top spot on Saturday.
Qualifying for the 97th Indy 500 on May 26 will be staged this weekend at the famed 4km oval with pole being decided on Saturday and the final spots in the 33-car field to be filled on Sunday.
Defending champion Franchitti won from the inside of the second row in 2007 and 2010 but came from 16th to capture last year’s race in a thriller.
Franchitti held off Japan’s Takuma Sato, who crashed attempting a pass on the inside of the first turn on the final lap, to claim the 2012 victory.
On Wednesday, Franchitti clocked the top practice speed at 224.236 mph in his Honda-powered Dallara.
“It doesn’t really count for much, but it’s nice nonetheless,” Franchitti said.
“We’re still very much in the preparation stage. We’re making changes to the car … really the lap time came from being in the right place at the right time. Still got a little work to do but we’re closer than we have been.”
Only Americans Marco Andretti, whose grandfather Mario won the famed racing family’s only Indy title back in 1969, and Ryan Hunter-Reay, the reigning IndyCar series champion, and Brazil’s Helio Castroneves, a three-time Indy 500 winner, turned faster laps in the first five days of practice.
“We have a solid idea of the set-up we want the car to have at this point,” Andretti said.
That trial and error has helped Hunter-Reay as well.
“We tried quite a few different set-ups because the weather is changing. It’s getting hotter,” he said. “So we’re just logging more data. We were on the top of the charts most of the day but finished with a great race car, so I’m really happy with it.”
Franchitti had the only Honda engine among the speed leaders, the others running on Chevrolet power. The only other car among the fastest 10 with Honda power is that of Sato, this season’s points leader.
Sato, a former Formula One racer, became the first Japanese driver to win an IndyCar race when he captured the title last month at Long Beach. He has 136 points, 13 ahead of Andretti with Castroneves 20 points back in third.