Brack shows the way in Friday practice.

Swedish driver Kenny Brack was the man to beat on the first day of practice at the Chip Ganassi owned oval in downtown Chicago, taking his Shell sponsored Reynard-Ford to the top of the time sheets with a record lap.

Brack was fastest in both practice sessions on Friday, adding to his happiness by signing a one year contract extension with current employer Bobby Rahal. His best time of 22.557 seconds was a full three tenths faster than Max Papis' qualifying record from last year and continued his good form from the recent test session at the track where he was second fastest.

Cristiano Da Matta repaid PPI Motorsports owner Cal Wells after he was re-signed by the team for another year by taking second fastest time, again inside Papis' time from last year. The Brazilian driver was the fastest Toyota powered runner with a best time of 22.677 seconds. Da Matta was fastest overall in the recent test at the track and managed to retain his good set-up on his Reynard-Toyota despite a bad vibration on his first set of tyres.

The field was remarkably close, although the level of competitiveness in the Fed-Ex Series has been incredible since the season began. On Friday the top 20 cars were covered by less than a second with the top 15 recording a lap within half a second of the pole.

Helio Castroneves was a somewhat surprising third fastest considering that the Penske team had a horrible time in testing with Gil De Ferran crashing and both cars being off the pace. The Brazilian driver struggled for much of the day with a combination of tyre and balance problems but was still able to duck under the track record with a time of 22.691 seconds.

Castroneves was one of many drivers who found that the Mark Two Handford Rear wing device, specially devised for short ovals as opposed to Superspeedways, made overtaking other cars almost impossible. Several drivers warned prior to the weekend that passing would be a rarity on the 1.1 mile track as it was at Nazareth and Milwaukee.

Performance of the day has to go to Tony Kanaan who finished fourth in his Reynard-Mercedes. Kanaan and fifth placed Mauricio Gugelmin made it four Brazilians in the top five, both drivers finishing the day in a higher position than expected after some long awaited torque from their Ilmor tuned units. Kanaan, on just his second race back from injury, was particularly impressive as he was the last driver to lap beneath Papis' record while Gugelmin continued PacWest's good form at the track.

Michigan victor Juan Montoya found himself in sixth place after a steady day of setting up in the Chip Ganassi Lola-Toyota. The Colombian had no major difficulties and should be a major factor come qualifying on Saturday afternoon.

Roberto Moreno looked much happier this weekend than he did last Sunday at Michigan. The Brazilian veteran was seventh quickest and had no reports of the vicious handling problems which effectively ended his Michigan 500 before it had started.

Rounding out the top ten were Oriol Servia, Adrian Fernandez and Alex Tagliani, all three drivers continuing the good form they showed at Michigan.

The morning practice session was interrupted by a nasty accident involving Newman-Haas driver Christian Fittipaldi who eliminated himself from the event when he was knocked unconscious after sliding backwards into the wall at Turn Two. The accident prone driver has been ruled out of the event as a result of CART's seven day ruling which prohibits a driver from racing after he has been knocked out. Because Friday practice does not count for grid positions, the team can nominate a substitute driver for the race if they wish.

Both sessions were punctuated by accidents with afternoon practice being curtailed several minutes early after Paul Tracy made light contact with the outside wall on the exit of Turn Four, possibly as a result of getting severe turbulence from the car in-front. Tracy finished the day in eleventh place and the fastest of the Team KOOL Green cars.

Others to be disappointed with their times included Gil De Ferran, Dario Franchitti, Mark Blundell, Michael Andretti and Max Papis. De Ferran had to make up for the time he lost in testing and spent much of the day battling to find the right balance and finished 14th. Franchitti was at a loss to explain his 16th position especially after performing well in testing while Blundell watched his team-mate complete the day inside the top five while he was mired back in his usual 17th position.

However for Championship leader Andretti and track record holder Papis, the problems just kept on coming. Andretti's Lola chassis did not seem to react well to the circuit and he was one of the worst affected by turbulence finishing the day in 18th place with a best time of 23.206 seconds. 'Mad Max' meanwhile looked thoroughly dejected as he had to resort to his spare car to record 20th best time, a full nine tenths slower than his team-mate.