Justin Wilson finished Friday in sixth spot for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, the Briton working towards a second straight front row road course start by ending practice ahead of AGR rookie Hideki Mutoh and Dreyer & Reinbold's Buddy Rice.
“I really enjoy the track - it's pretty cool," Wilson commented, "We made some progress in the first session, and I was quite happy that we finished fourth in that. We made a few changes between sessions and it didn't go too well so, in the second session, we had to recover but were pretty pleased with the end performance considering we were on old tyres the whole time. I figure we are in good shape."
The Briton was among those to find trouble with his pit stall which, at just 35 feet in length, is the shortest of the season.
"The pit boxes are really, really short, and I tried different lines coming in," Wilson revealed, "One time I came in I clipped [chief mechanic and left front tyre changer] Tim [Coffeen]'s knee with the front wing and knocked him over. It's not a nice thing to have happen to him. I felt really bad and am glad he is okay and was back on his feet and working on the car by the end of the session.”
Ernesto Viso made a strong return after missing the Nashville round with a dose of the mumps, claiming ninth overall across the two sessions, while the fourth AGR entry, driven by Danica Patrick, rounded out the top ten.
Dixon's team-mate, Dan Wheldon, was only 13th fastest, behind both Vitor Meira and Graham Rahal, while Watkins Glen winner Ryan Hunter-Reay could only manage 14th and runner-up Darren Manning 16th, the pair sandwiching a decent performance by Pacific Coast's Mario Dominguez.
