Iowa polesitter in final practice crash
ALEX TAGLIANI (No. 77 Bowers & Wilkins/Sam Schmidt Motorsports): "I'm very disappointed. I'm upset for the boys because it's going to be a lot of work. We had a very racey car in this session. We were making good improvements and running side-by-side early on so I felt comfortable racing with (Sato). I was on the outside for a couple of laps early on and then we did some pit stops. Then I was on the bottom. I felt like (he) crossed down into the bottom lane and my right front touched his left rear. And that's a situation where the two cars are not clear. You really have to give room when you are out there."
TAKUMA SATO (No. 5 KV Racing Technology – Lotus): "I was approaching on the outside at a much greater closing speed because I think (Tagliani) was just coming out of the pits. I was running in the second lane and gave space, but unfortunately we were very close together and we touched. I didn't it want it this way during practice. Hopefully Alex's car is OK, and mine is OK is too.
Some drivers made big improvements from qualifying while others went backwards in race trim, with Danica Patrick falling from second to 19th.
Marco Andretti improved from 17th to seventh, while Scott Dixon qualified 23rd but was running 12th in final practice.
Rank, Driver , Gap, Best Lap
1 Ed Carpenter 0.000 178.866
2 Will Power 0.0010 178.857
3 Takuma Sato 0.0091 178.775
4 Tony Kanaan 0.0236 178.631
5 Dario Franchitti 0.0343 178.525
6 Ryan Briscoe 0.0481 178.389
7 Marco Andretti 0.0597 178.274
8 Helio Castroneves 0.0884 177.991
9 Ana Beatriz 0.1002 177.875
10 JR Hildebrand 0.1036 177.842
11 Mike Conway 0.1070 177.812
12 Scott Dixon 0.1160 177.724
13 EJ Viso 0.1220 177.662
14 Alex Tagliani 0.1410 177.471
15 Ryan Hunter-Reay 0.1510 177.378
16 Oriol Servia 0.1580 177.307
17 James Jakes 0.1790 177.103
18 Graham Rahal 0.1919 176.978
19 Danica Patrick 0.2315 176.594
20 Justin Wilson 0.2330 176.577
21 Charlie Kimball 0.2745 176.178
22 James Hinchcliffe 0.2931 175.999
23 Alex Lloyd 0.3125 175.812
24 Vitor Meira 0.3622 175.336
25 Sebastian Saavedra 0.4050 174.925