Scott Dixon marked himself out as the man to beat in Saturday's Indianapolis 500 qualifying session, as the traditional Fast Friday practice sessions lived up to the name.
The Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver turned the fastest lap of the month to date - clocking 39.6531secs around the 2.5mile speedway - to lead the final pre-qualifying practice before Pole Day for the second consecutive year.
“I've been in this spot before, and it didn't work out well in the past so, hopefully, we don't carry that tradition on," Dixon smiled, "Today was kind of a tow-fest. It was very hard to get clear laps - I maybe had a couple of clear laps the whole day, and I think we could see everybody's speed fell off when they were by themselves."
Despite his pace, however, the Kiwi was not convinced that he would be able to secure the PEAK Pole on Saturday.
"I think, in the morning, we need to decide if we have a legit shot at pole and whether we're going to go for it," he reasoned, "I don't think we're going to waste tyres and energy going for it if we don't think we have a clear shot at it. I think, last year, we worked on it in the morning session, and we struggled a little bit for qualifying because of the weather conditions. I think we planned to be a little more safe so far, and that's going to help us tomorrow for the balance and things like that. We'll just have to see how it goes. Right now, we're happy being in the top three on both days."
Marco Andretti, who posted the quickest time when the series regulars joined their rookie counterparts for the first time on 6 May - and the last day cars were on the track thanks to two days of persistent rain - was second-fastest in the #26 Indiana Jones car for Andretti Green Racing.
