The car was really good today but, with the experience we gained here last year and the historical data that the team has at this track, we were optimistic that we would have a fast car right off the truck," Castroneves admitted, "We mainly concentrated on race set-up today, and concentrated on testing some little things that we thought might make us quicker. We would have liked to top the speed charts today, but the final session was shortened by a caution and, when we got back out, we only had a few laps to try to go for a quick lap. Unfortunately, I got caught up in some traffic, but we'll take third quick as a good start to the weekend and try to move forward from here.
Briscoe was happy with fourth on his first outing at Mid-Ohio in an IndyCar, building on the experience he gained from running at the classic road course in sportscars.
"I have to say I really enjoy the circuit," the Australian noted, "Our goal for the practice sessions was to test as much as possible and try a variety of things and, overall, I think it was a good day for Team Penske. We learned quite a bit, but we worked mainly on our race set-up. We'll focus on our qualifying set-up tomorrow morning and, hopefully, things will go as we hope, and we'll be able to get into the Firestone Fast Six.
Dixon, meanwhile, was equally content with fifth, having managed to save two sets of tyres in preparation for qualifying, which will revert to IndyCar's unique road course format.
After Friday's two practice sessions, the field will be randomly divided into two groups for Saturday's practice and segment one of qualifying, where each group receives 20 minutes of track time. The fastest six cars from each group advance to segment two, while the remaining cars are assigned positions 13-26. Segment two will see the twelve advancing cars receive 15 minutes on track, with the fastest six advancing to the Firestone Fast Six Shootout.
