Marlboro Team Penske driver Sam Hornish Jr. topped the speed charts for the fifth time in six practice days as preparations continued for the 90th running of the Indianapolis 500.

Hornish posted the day’s quickest lap of 40.0087 seconds, 224.951 mph in his No. 6 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone.

Hornish’s teammate, Helio Castroneves, was second-fastest at 224.437 mph in the No. 3T Marlboro Team Penske Honda-powered Dallara. Target Chip Ganassi teammates Dan Wheldon (222.616 mph) and Scott Dixon (222.461 mph) were third and fourth. Scott Sharp (222.425) rounded out the top five.

Drivers were limited to approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes of practice as rain and a pair of accidents by rookies Arie Luyendyk Jr. and Thiago Medeiros limited on-track activity. Neither driver was injured in the separate accidents.

Pos. Car Name C/E/T Speed

1 6 Sam Hornish Jr. D/H/F 224.951 mph

2 3T Helio Castroneves D/H/F 224.437 mph

3 10T Dan Wheldon D/H/F 222.616 mph

4 9T Scott Dixon D/H/F 222.461 mph

5 8 Scott Sharp D/H/F 222.425 mph

6 17 Jeff Simmons P/H/F 221.716 mph

7 11 Tony Kanaan D/H/F 221.707 mph

8 90 Townsend Bell D/H/F 221.329 mph

POST-PRACTICE QUOTES:

ARIE LUYENDYK JR. (No. 61 Luyendyk Racing Panoz/Honda/Firestone): “It was our first lap out. We came out of the pits, went through Turn 3 and 4, everything felt great. By the time I got to Turn 1, I wasn’t even up to speed yet. I don’t feel like I drove it into (Turn) 1 very hard. I couldn’t have been going faster than 180. I tried to save it and stay out of the wall, but we made contact. It’s a shame. We need the laps more than anyone else out there.”

THIAGO MEDEIROS (No. 18 PDM Racing Panoz/Honda/Firestone): “I saw Kosuke (Matsuura) behind me, and I was waiting for him to overtake me. I thought there was enough room below me, but I guess there wasn’t, so I moved up a little bit and lost it. I’m just disappointed. It’s over.”

SAM HORNISH (No. 6 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone, fastest driver of the day): “We worked on the race setup of the Marlboro Team Penske car today, and I think things went well. We wanted the chance to run in traffic this afternoon, which we were able to do, and I’m happy with the way the car is handling in the pack. I was hoping to get a little more time on the track, but the rain cut our day short. Tomorrow we’ll work on the race setup, and we’ll spend the last part of the day preparing for qualifying on Saturday.”

HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone, second-fastest driver of the day): “Today was kind of a roller coaster with all of the changes in the weather. I had my fire suit on ready to go at noon, so I was itching to get out and run when the track finally dried out. Once we got out there, we were able to get in a lot of good laps in traffic. Early in the session, we struggled a bit because the track was so green. By the end of the day, the track conditions improved, and we were able to post a solid time. It’s always nice to be near the top of the speed charts, but we were really concentrating on the race setup of the Marlboro Team Penske car today. All in all, we were pleased with how today went, and we’re looking forward to getting back out tomorrow.”

SCOTT SHARP (No. 8 Delphi Dallara/Honda/Firestone, fifth-fastest driver): “It was good for us to get out today. Like everyone, we just carried on with working on race setup. We made some more moves and continued on with our plan. I think we learned some more things, and were just carrying along. That’s really what you need to do – just run laps, make changes and get the car perfected as much as possible. The wind blew around a lot. Everyone had to deal with it but it was pretty consistent, which was good. It is worse when it’s gusty. Certainly, you felt it the most going down the back straightaway. It would just move the car side to side.”

VITOR MEIRA (No. 4 Panther Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, 10th-fastest driver): “Honestly, the month started for us yesterday. We had very few laps before then. I was actually amazed by the car today. There was tons of grip, and we were still working on race setup and trying to improve the car a little bit in traffic. I was pretty happy with it. That’s why we went back to the garage early. It’s been a good month, so far. The rain sucks a little bit, but it’s the same for everybody.” (About his month): “Last year, everyone asked me about being the dark horse and how nobody mentioned me. This year, it has been the same. That’s how we approach the 500. We do our thing and don’t try to put up any big numbers. We just do our job and know what’s best for us. The outcome is going to be good because you know what you have. It’s not about the numbers.”

TOWNSEND BELL (No. 90 Rock & Republic Dallara/Honda/Firestone, eighth-fastest driver): “I think it went pretty good. The conditions were a little touch-and-go there with the gusting wind, but it’s good to run and figure out what the car’s going to do in those conditions in case that’s what we race with. I think we ended up pretty decent. I was pretty happy with everything today.”

MAX PAPIS (No. 52 Cheever Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, 19th-fastest driver): “The best thing today was getting the Sport Clip car up to speed, going fast early, getting acquainted again with open-wheel and Indianapolis. I was pretty pleased because I worked my speed slowly but not too slowly. Everything went according to plan. I did an installation lap the first run just to see if I had to turn right and left, and I found out I have to turn left only. In my head, I said I was going to go flat out on Lap 15, and I found out that I did it on Lap 12. So I was three laps ahead of schedule in my brain. I feel confident that we are on the right track. Everyone at Cheever Racing has been giving me the opportunity to show that I can drive fast in an open-wheel car. I have a steep learning curve, of course. Nineteenth is not where you want to be, but I think it’s not a bad start. At Indianapolis, you should never say that you are comfortable, because it’s a track that can bite every second. I felt confident about what I was doing, but I’m still 80 percent of what I can do and just taking it easy. I told my engineer, Iain Watt, ‘I am controlling my emotion at the moment.’ I need to do it slowly, because it takes less than a second to make a massive mistake. My goal is first to qualify the car and being realistic with what you can do.” (About how the deal with Cheever Racing came together): “It’s pretty simple. Me and Eddie (Cheever Jr.) have a long-standing relationship. He’s Italian like I am - of course an American born in Italy, and I’m an Italian born in America. We always kept in contact. We talk about the Grand Am car this year. He told me that he really wanted to give me an opportunity to sit in his second car in the Indy 500 because we both felt that the only time I was here in Indy, it was not what we wanted. We had mechanical problems. When Sport Clips came on board, everything was a lot easier, and here we are.”

JAQUES LAZIER (No. 21 Panoz/Honda/Firestone, 21st-fastest driver): “I try to be frustrated, but at the same time I also smile too darn much. It’s fun being here; it’s fun to watch the conditions change and fight with the track, not to mention there were about 30 other people out there at the same time. It was pretty chaotic out there. It was fun to go around and kind of get into some traffic. We are still pretty much in our race trim. We haven’t really had a chance to go out and really see what the car has. We’re still in our infant stage just trying to get some laps and get the car to balance where we want it. We had an electrical gremlin. We had something between the throttle pedal and the cable, somewhere in-between there there was some slack, or something just wasn’t quite right. The throttle sensor on the engine and the throttle pedal didn’t quite equal up, and it went into fail-safe mode so I had to shut it down. It started to go a little lean, so I just shut it down. But I still think we had a pretty good day. We never quite got a good, clean lap. We were just kind of playing around and seeing how it felt in traffic. We ran with Michael (Andretti) for a couple of laps, and the car felt good. I could move around a little bit. When I got too close, the car had a tendency to want to wash out a little bit. So that was something we needed to learn. We’ll take the knowledge that we gained today, apply it tomorrow and keep moving.”

BUDDY RICE (No. 15 Rahal Letterman Racing Team Argent Panoz/Honda/Firestone, 13th-fastest): “We had two full tanks, and I think we’re fairly happy. We just need to do a little bit more massaging, and I think we’re going to be OK. I’m a little optimistic right now. We’re going to have to wait and see. Obviously, we won’t know until the end of the month, but right now we’re definitely making some headway and getting close. Every time it rains it washes everything off, but at least you’ve got one thing happening. Every morning you come and run here, it’s a green track, so you know what to expect and kind of how to handle it. Hopefully we can get the No. 15 Argent car a good finish at the end of the month. I think all that’s left is qualifying and the race right now.

JEFF SIMMONS (No. 17 Rahal Letterman Racing Team Ethanol Panoz/Honda/Firestone, sixth-fastest): “I think we’re on a little different program than the rest of the team. Buddy’s car looked real good, and I know he’s fairly happy with it. I’m fairly happy with where we are, as well. We still have work to do. Once again, we just need some time on the track. We got some of that and we learned some more today. My quick lap was a tow. For the most part, I was trying to avoid tows, but sometimes when they’re there and you’re on a run, you don’t want to waste the whole run because you have to back off and then you waste the tires some more. But we were looking decent even without tows out there. I’m fairly happy with the car. We’ve got some more work to do, but we made some small gains.”