Dario Franchitti, three-timeand defending Indianapolis 500 winner and a four-time IZOD IndyCar Series champion, led the Honda-powered field Friday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on “Fast Friday”, the final day of practice prior to qualifying for this year’s 500-mile race.

Franchitti had posted the ninth-quickest speed, 227.080 mph, around the 2.5-mile oval when a thunderstorm brought an end to the day’s activities just after 3 p.m.  He also was quickest overall in practice on Wednesday.

Takuma Sato, the current IZOD IndyCar Series championship points leader and winner of last month’s Grand Prix of Long Beach, posted the 10th-fastest speed today, despite running only 14 laps during the abbreviated day.

Action at the speedway continues tomorrow with a morning practice session, followed by Pole Day qualifying to set the first 24 starting positions for the 97th running of the Indianapolis 500.  Television coverage, beginning at 11 a.m. EDT, will be provided by the NBC Sports Network. 

Takuma Sato(#14 A.J. Foyt Racing Honda): “Today was quite straightforward. On ‘Fast Friday’ we have higher boost andonly look for the qualifying set up. After the first run we made some goodprogress and the second run was quite satisfying. We were not able toexplore more due to the rain but I think we’re in quite good shape. We’llreview the details tonight and fine tune the ABC Supply car tomorrow morningto prepare for qualifying. It was short but quite a good day.”