INDIANAPOLIS — Different agendas drove the IndyCar Series teams as they prepared for the biggest race of their year last week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Some planned no more than a fine tuning and then turning a few fast laps and being ready for Indy 500 qualifying pole dash. But for nearly half of the entrants, it would be back to school, a crash course for not only the drivers, but also the crewmen and engineers who had virtually no recent experience at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

May 5

The second day of Rookie Orientation began on schedule. Ten drivers had already completed their rookie paces and were clear to practice at any speed. Enrique Bernoldi had one phase remaining, and Mario Dominguez and Mario Moraes needed to complete all four phases. With Max Papis and Davey Hamilton running refresher tests, 16 cars completed laps.
The first incident of the month occurred just before 1 p.m., when Jaime Camara lost control and hit the wall entering turn one. Camara climbed from the car, walked to the ambulance and was later transported to Methodist Hospital for precautionary X-rays after reporting soreness in his back. 
The remainder of ROP was completed without incident.  Alex Lloyd’s 223.033 mph took honors for the quickest lap. 

May 6

As the track opened for the first day of on-track practice for the veterans under warm, sunny skies, there was a new sense of urgency as local weathermen unanimously predicted a week filled with rain ahead.  The result was an extremely busy day, with more than 1,300 laps completed.
Tony Kanaan took a short warmup just after the noon track opening, running 11 laps, the third at 224.5 mph, which stood as the top speed for most of the afternoon. 
Dan Wheldon was just behind at 224.2 on his eighth circuit. But at the end of the day, it was Marco Andretti benefiting from a Graham Rahal happy hour tow to bump the top lap to 226.599 mph. Kanaan, his teammate, returned to run a 225.2 circuit in the Team 7-Eleven machine, with Scott Dixon third at 225.0 for Target Chip Ganassi Racing.  As Indy Car series regulars claimed the top-10 lap times, Will Power paced the transitioning rookies at 223.5 mph at 11th quickest in the Aussie Vineyard — Team Australia car. 
Andretti called the day a good start, noting, “Obviously I had a very big tow, but I think you need mechanical balance to be able to stay flat.” 

May 7 & 8

Rain moved into the area and washed out two days of practice. The weather gave a couple teams time to finish repairing damage, allowed many to catch up on tasks that had been relegated to the back burner, and all had time to focus on what they could change to make their driver faster. 

May 9

The track reopened at noon for Fast Friday practice and several incidents punctuated the abbreviated practice session. Mario Dominguez spun exiting pit lane an hour-and-a-half into the session, lightly touching the inside wall. The car suffered little damage.
“Everyone is telling me to keep my patience,” Dominguez said. “We are already behind, and I guess I was trying to rush it back out there.  We are working hard and we have a lot of work to do.”
Impressive Alex Lloyd wasn’t nearly as lucky as he drifted high coming off the first turn and spun, slamming the SAFER Barrier.  Lloyd had just cut his best lap of the month, topping 223.5 mph, but the Rahal Letterman-Chip Ganassi Dallara suffered heavy damage. 
In the day’s most publicized incident, the left front wing of Danica Patrick’s AGR Motorola Dallara caught crewman Chuck Buckman, as she returned to the pits during the afternoon practice, and sent him tumbling. Buckman, who works for Dale Coyne Racing, was hospitalized with head injuries, but is expected to make a full recovery. 
With the return of a steady rain, the track closed just before 4 p.m. Dixon was at the top of the speed chart, raising the bar to 226.968 mph. Andretti continued to run quick, with a 226.7 mph effort. Kanaan, Briscoe and Hideki Mutoh completed the top five.
With the practice time limited severely by the weather, 37 different cars completed 2,418 laps.