Sato, Rahal Head Honda Practice Effort at The Milwaukee Mile
• First short oval race of 2015
• Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Jakes also post top-10 speeds
• Qualifying, race take place on Sunday

Takuma Sato and Graham Rahal led the way for Honda Saturday at The Milwaukee Mile, finishing the sole practice session of the day in third and fourth, respectively, in preparation for Sunday’s ABC Supply Wisconsin 250, presented by the Metro Milwaukee Honda Dealers.

Rahal, winner of the series’ most recent race at Auto Club Speedway, spent most of the 75-minute session solidly in third, while Sato briefly went to the top of the charts in the final 20 minutes, slipping down to third – with Rahal fourth – as most of the field made gains just prior to the checkers.

Among those improving in the final minutes, Ryan Hunter-Reay found speed in his final run to finish seventh for Andretti Autosport, while James Jakes jumped to ninth in his Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda.

Activities at The Milwaukee Mile continue tomorrow with a final practice, followed by qualifying. Sunday’s 250-lap race begins at 5 p.m. EDT with live network television coverage on the NBC Sports Network.

Graham Rahal (#15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda) 4th fastest: “Right away the balance of the car was really good, I was definitely pleased with it. It was pretty comfortable, so we were able to push forward and try some things with the setup. I think we made the car a lot better. It’s definitely going to be interesting to follow a bunch of cars [in the race]. Based on what some guys were saying, they seemed to struggle pretty bad. That’s going to make it an interesting race. I didn’t really get a run there at the end of the session to get the most out of the car, but it’s definitely good.”