BY BRUCE MARTIN

LAS VEGAS – Ryan Briscoe was back in the suit he loves the best – his red-white-and-blue IZOD uniform – as the Team IZOD driver hit the track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Thursday. Briscoe was the eighth-fastest driver in the practice session for Sunday’s IZOD IndyCar World Championships Presented by Honda and promises more speed out of the No. 6 Team Penske car for Friday’s qualifications.

Briscoe ran a fast lap at 223.482 mph around the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“We had a good practice today,” said Briscoe, who enters the weekend ranked sixth in the series standings. “The IZOD Team Penske car had good speed and we feel good about our chances this weekend. It’s definitely going to be an interesting race.”

Target/Chip Ganassi Racing driver Dario Franchitti enters the final race of the season with an 18-point lead over Team Verizon driver Will Power in the battle for the IZOD IndyCar Series championship. Franchitti was ninth in practice at 223.465 mph and Power was 14^th at 222.220 mph for Team Penske.

“We still have some speed to find in the Verizon car but it was a decent start for us today,” Power said. “It’s good to get some laps in here at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and we’ll be working hard to get the most out of the car in practice and qualifying tomorrow.”

Franchitti believes there is a need for more speed from his No. 10 car if he is going to wrap up the championship.

“We have some work to do on the Target car,” Franchitti said. “I wasn’t happy where we were to start today. Lots of work to do to get the car where we need it to be for the race on Sunday.”

Dan Wheldon, who has a chance to win the $5 million GoDaddy IndyCar Challenge if he wins the race from 34^th starting position, was 22^nd at 221.440 mph.

Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves was the fastest of the three Team Penske drivers when he was sixth at 223.519 mph.

“It was a good start today for the Guidepoint Systems car,” Castroneves said. “It’s my first time here at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and we took our time to get to know the track and I think we have a pretty good idea where we need to go for the weekend.”

Danica Patrick may be leaving the IZOD IndyCar Series after Sunday’s IZOD IndyCar Series World Championship Presented by Honda and would love to bid farewell from victory lane. Patrick proved she had a fast car in Thursday’s practice session at the 1.5-mile oval with a fast lap at 224.719 miles an hour referring to it as “Indy speeds.” With 34 cars lapping the Vegas oval some of the speed may have been aided with “tows” but it is undeniable that Patrick would love to end her IndyCar career with a victory before she heads off to NASCAR.

“I think it’s sad that this is the first time I’ve been quickest at any point this year,” Patrick said. “It happened a lot more my first year. I’d just like to finish this right. I’d like to finish it off on a good note and nothing would let me turn the page to the next chapter better than me winning here.”

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Patrick scored her career-best NASCAR Nationwide Series finish here when she was fourth on March 5. The speeds are considerably faster than that in the sleeker IndyCars.

“It’s frigging fast out there,” said Patrick, driving the No. 7 Team GoDaddy car. “All the speeds up there are big drafts but that’s pretty quick. The track is nice and smooth and the cars go around here pretty quickly. We are three-wide going around there and it will be pretty exciting. I was reminding myself to turn in nice and gentle and be smooth with the wheel. That means we’re going fast.”

And the fast way around will be hugging the bottom groove of the race track.

Oriol Servia of Newman/Haas Racing was second quick at 224.719 mph. This will be his third race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and his second with Newman/Haas at this track.

“It’s great to be back in Las Vegas,” Servia said. “The last time we ran at this track, the team finished 1-2 so we’re really looking forward to that again.  The track felt great and so did the Telemundo car; we finished P2 (second fast) in the session.  We all knows it doesn’t mean that much because it’s only the first session but it’s definitely better to be up there than not.  The race will be exciting.  It will feel like playing Russian Roulette.

“It’s so fast. It’s just so fast and so close to each other, it’s exciting. The fans are going to get a good show. It’s kind of crazy. It’s great that the track is smooth; you can be consistent and try to keep your car in line and follow the car in front when you’re three wide. … Because it’s smooth it allows everybody to be really close, we’re talking three wide, I’m sure at some moments we will be four wide. It’s not just one row, it’s going to be like five rows of three wide and five more rows of three wide. There’s really no room for error. It’s exciting, I’m sure on TV and that the fans here will have a great show.”

Ryan Hunter-Reay was third at 223.888 mph and teammate Mike Conway fifth at 223.558 mph to give Andretti Autosport two drivers in the top five.  Target/Chip Ganassi Racing driver Scott Dixon was fourth with a lap at 223.689 miles per hour.

While Franchitti and Power are battling for the championship the other drivers in the field simply want to win the race. And with one win in 115 starts Patrick can’t think of a better way to end her IndyCar career than with a victory in her final race.

“I think that we’ll put on a really close race here this weekend,” she said. “Even in a stock car there is a lot of grip here, so I’m sure that it means that we’re going to be three or four wide, four or five rows deep for a lot of the race here.  I think it’s going to be exciting and I think it’s going to be a great way to finish the season off. 

Having that little bit of experience here in a stock car, I think will help.  It definitely can’t hurt.

“We’re here.  Viva Las Vegas, baby.”

Patrick said she has no regrets as she leaves the IZOD IndyCar Series and many memories.

“I’ll always remember my first Indy 500 for sure, winning in Japan, and those will be the things that I remember most,” Patrick said. “But I’ll remember that it has gone fast, but at the same time it seems like light years from 2005 when I started and how far I’ve come as a person and how many things I’ve been able to do, and all the things that I’ve learned along the way.  So a lot has happened in that seven years.   It’s where I got my start, and it’s what made me who I am today. 

“I’ve had a lot of fun. So it’s all part of the process and the journey.  In the end, the journey is the fun thing once you’ve accomplished what you want, you just set another goal.  I wouldn’t change anything.”

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