TONY KANAAN was fastest Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the final IndyCar practice prior to the 91st Indianapolis 50 race on Sunday, with a lap of 225.467mph.

Other fast drivers included polesitter HELIO CASTRONEVES and MICHAEL ANDRETTI. Second through fifth were DARIO FRANCHITTI, Andretti, Castroneves and JAQUES LAZIER - the top Panoz driver of the three in the race.

All 33 drivers were on track for the hour-long session as part of Carb Day. The session was halted twice for track debris. The weather was warm and breezy, with hazy skies. Still no signs of the forecast isolated thundershowers, but no matter now. The IRL cars won't be on track again until race day Sunday noon.

Friday's one-hour IndyCar practice is a shakedown for some teams, a readiness check before the long Sunday race. BUDDY RICE said most drivers already has set-ups and will be checking everything and then parking it. He didn't expect anyone to be making any big changes, but rather checking the track and conditions. "It's only an hour session," he said, "You won't see massive adjustments for Sunday's race."

The set-ups Rice and team-mate SARAH FISHER had were very helpful to their new, third team-mate for the race - ROGER YASUKAWA - who qualified on the third day as part of a second-week Indy 500 programme. Yasukawa qualified 23rd. Rice will start 16th and Fisher is 21st.

For the first time since 1986, JIM NABORS won't be singing the Indianapolis anthem Back Home In Indiana before the 500. Due to illness, he'll be home in Hawaii, but also on the big screen at the track, asking the fans to have a sing-a-long instead. Nabors first sang the song in 1972, and has only missed singing it seven times since then.