IRL: Indy 500: Day 10 practice summary

Rookie Leads Busy Day Of Practice At Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS, Thursday, May 20, 2004 -- Rookie Kosuke Matsuura turned the top lap, 220.784 mph, during a busy day of practice for the 88th Indianapolis 500 on May 20.

Twenty-five driver-car combinations totaled 2,026 laps -- a high for the month -- in 5 hours, 42 minutes of short- and long-stint running. With the IRL IndyCar® Series using 30-gallon fuel cells and 3.0-liter engines for the first time in the 500-Mile Race, many runs were to collect data on fuel consumption.

A.J. Foyt IV had the lone incident of the day when his No. 14T Conseco A.J. Foyt Racing Panoz G Force/Toyota/Firestone made light contact with the inside retaining wall in the short chute between Turns 3 and 4 at 2:24 p.m. (EDT). The impact dislodged the rear wing. He was checked at the infield medical center and returned to practice in the same car later in the day.

Another driver-car combination was added to the field as PDM Racing announced it would field its No. 18 Dallara/Chevrolet/Firestone entry for 1999 Indy 500 Bank One Rookie of the Year Robby McGehee.

<pre> FASTEST INDIANAPOLIS 500 DRIVERS OF THE DAY Pos. Car Name C/E/T Speed 1 55T Kosuke Matsuura G/H/F 220.784 mph 2 5T Adrian Fernandez G/H/F 220.007 mph 3 3T Helio Castroneves D/T/F 218.676 mph 4 15T Vitor Meira G/H/F 218.617 mph 5 11T Tony Kanaan D/H/F 218.455 mph

FASTEST NON-QUALIFIED INDIANAPOLIS 500 DRIVERS Pos. Car Name C/E/T Speed 1 25 Marty Roth D/T/F 212.352 mph

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