Reigning Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan, who will start the 98th running of Sunday's race from the inside of the sixth row, topped the speed chart for the final practice session, the final opportunity for teams to fine-tune their cars before Race Day.
Kanaan, driving the No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, topped the speed chart with a quick lap of 227.838 mph with teammate Scott Dixon (227.773 mph) and KV Racing Technology's Townsend Bell (227.221) right behind.
"We feel good about it," said Kanaan. "I think we worked pretty hard together to make it up for our Saturday qualifying. We have great people back in the engineering office at Target Chip Ganassi Racing. We showed that a little bit on Monday after qualifying and today. Lap times don't count today. It feels good to be up there, but that's not what it's all about. We ran a lot in traffic. I can say I'm pretty happy about it."
Similarly, Dixon hopes that winning the Tag Heuer Indy 500 Pit Stop Competition could be a good omen for the team.
Dixon, driving the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, defeated rookie Sage Karam of Dreyer & Reinbold-Kingdom Racing with Chip Ganassi Racing in the championship round. His pit crew received the $50,000 first place prize for its speed, precision and accuracy.
The winner of the competition has gone on to win the Indianapolis 500 six times, most recently with Castroneves in 2009. It was the second win for both Dixon and Target Chip Ganassi Racing in the last three years.
"The 9 car feels good," Dixon said. "The 10 car, quick this morning. As Tony touched on, it's just placing yourself to get a big tow. You try to take the most you can out of it, pop up to the top. I think the cars were consistent. Balance-wise, very good. Able to sort of maneuver through some of the traffic. But I think as we all know the competition is extremely tough and it looks like there's many good cars out there."
Also on Coors Light Carb Day, Gabby Chaves came from behind on the final corner of the final lap to overtake Matthew Brabham and win a thrilling Freedom 100.
The 20-year-old Chaves, who finished second in last year's four-wide Freedom 100 finish, won the race by .0050 of a second.
It was the second consecutive Freedom 100 win for Belardi Auto Racing, which won the race last season with the No. 5 car of Peter Dempsey.
WDUN will have live coverage of the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday on 102.9 FM and 550 AM.
Tony Kanaan topped the speed charts on Carb Day, the final day of practice prior to the running of Sunday's Indianapolis 500. / Photo: Courtesy IndyCar Media
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