INDYCAR: Takuma Sato Tops Fast Friday Indianapolis 500 Practice – Full Results

Fast Friday is typically all about the speed, as teams and drivers receive an extra 100 horsepower boost in their engines. Takuma Sato had the fastest lap of the day at 234.753 mph, which was the fastest lap turned at the speeday in 27 years. Marco Andretti, Rinus VeeKay, and defending race winner Marcus Ericsson all ecliped the 234 mph barrier. That was just one of the many topics during a busy and eventful practice.

The weather was ideal for the third day in a row, although today's environment will not be indicative of the condtions tomorrow during qualifying. The 34 drivers spent a majority of the afternoon taking turns around the 2.5-mile oval to work on qualifying setups. Things really began to get chaotic in the final 90 minutes of the six-hour session.

Juncos Hollinger Racing finally pulled the plug on the No. 77 chassis for Callum Ilott. The team and driver have been struggling to dial the car in, as they have been well off the pace ever since the test here last month. The team decided to make a chassis switch ahead of qualifying tomorrow. IndyCar will allow the team to work late into the night in order to make the necessary changes.

Scott Dixon has had a strong week for sure, but he did have a setback towards the end of today. His crew came over his radio to tell him to shut the car off and to coast back to pit lane. It seemed to be a fairly significant issue, and one that could really set them back for tomorrow, according to Dixon. This weekend the 2008 Indy 500 winner will try to become the first driver to ever early three consecutive poles at Indy. It would also tie him with Rick Mears on the all-time poles list with a sixth honor.

With just ten minutes remaining in practice, Jack Harvey had an issue with his Honda engine. Smoke began pouring out of his No. 30 RLL Racing machine, and it was deemed terminal. The organization has been struggling all week to find speed, as all four of their cars have been consistently near the bottom of the speed charts.

The field of 34 will be split into two groups tomorrow morning, where each group will be given 30 minutes of practice time ahead of qualifying. Former winner Ryan Hunter-Reay drew the first qualifying number today, and will be the first driver to offically make a qualifying attempt. Qualifications begin at 11 AM and runs until 5:50 PM, as starting positions 13-30 will be set in stone. The top 12 (including pole) and the last row (bumping) will be determined on Sunday.