Franchitti tops Power in opening IndyCar practice

Dario Franchitti

IRL

Ganassi Racing's Dario Franchitti, defending champion for the race here, turned the fastest lap in Friday's 1-hour practice session for the IndyCars at Infineon Raceway. His lap of 1m18.2969s just beat Penske Racing's Will Power by just 41 thousandths of a second and FAZZT's Alex Tagliani.

Scott Dixon and Justin Wilson rounded out the top-5.

Marco Andretti, Graham Rahal, Ryan Briscoe, Dan Wheldon and Hideki Mutoh rounded out the top-10

Starting up front is always key on the undulating 2.303-mile road course in beautiful Sonoma, California where passing is always difficult, so qualifying up front on Saturday is on everyone’s mind.

The top 16 drivers were separated by just 1-second on Friday and with the track rubbering in more on Saturday one can expect the speeds to increase and the gap to narrow.

Will Power is still a bit careful when he drives through the fast and blind S-turn 3A where he had his bad accident last year that resulted in a broken back.

"I still look for any dust up ahead. The warning light system is much better than last year, but you are so busy through there it takes full concentration and it's hard to take your eyes off the track to look for the flagman or lights."

Conquest Racing has flipped the numbers of its two IZOD IndyCar Series entries for this weekend's Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma.

Bertrand Baguette's RACB/Conquest Racing car will carry the No. 34 while Francesco Dracone's Halkin Jet/LaPasta.biz/Conquest car will carry the No. 36. Baguette is looking forward to the change this weekend which only involved changing the number decals on the car he has driven for most of the season.

"I prefer the No. 34," the Belgian rookie said. "I did all my karting with the No. 34 and even a few of my first single-seater (race cars) had 34. I actually wanted to run 34 this year, but Mario (Romancini) already had it."

While team owner Eric Bachelart hasn't decided what will happen for the rest of the year, Baguette is hopeful that he can put together a strong performance with the number to keep it.

"It's my preferred number and have always done well with it," he said. "I think the change is good and I hope that it is still a lucky number for me."

Another one-hour practice session is slated Saturday morning followed by PEAK Performance Pole Qualifying featuring the Firestone Fast Six. The Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma is scheduled for 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday.

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