Indianapolis 500: Alex Tagliani Posts Fastest Lap in First Full Practice Session

Monday brought cooler temperatures at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but there was no rain.

For the first time this year, we had a full scheduled six hour practice session that resulted in a total of 1379 laps turned by 39 cars. All of the teams were out with their primary cars and some made their first appearance of 2011 at the famous speedway.

Some familiar names were at the top of the speed charts in the first couple of hours. The 2004 Indy 500 winner, Buddy Rice, took over the top spot, holding it for the early parts of the afternoon. When the Ganassi cars finally came out to take the track, it didn't take Scott Dixon long to land the fastest lap.

He was bumped off the top spot, though, by Alex Tagliani with just about 30 minutes remaining in the six-hour practice session. Tagliani posted a fast lap of 225.878 mph on his 16th lap of the day.

There were a few guys that really impressed midway through the practice session. Graham Rahal turned a best lap of 225.071, good enough for third best, while Oriol Servia and Vitor Meira finished with the fifth and sixth fastest laps.

The "big five" were all included in the top 10, which was no surprise. Dixon had his fastest lap clocked at 225.124 mph. Ryan Briscoe was fourth with a best lap of 225.016. Defending champion Dario Franchitti, Helio Castroneves and Will Power all managed to stay in the top 10.

The interesting thing about these two power teams, were the number of laps turned. Briscoe turned 29 laps, Helio did 32, and Power went around 34 times. The total number of laps that Dixon and Franchitti turned, combined, was just 18 (10 for Scott and eight for Dario).

Tagliani, Dixon, Rahal, and Briscoe were all able to reach 225mph on this cold and windy Monday.

Just as some drivers had impressive speeds, there were others that I expected to see more out of. One of those drivers was Tony Kanaan. He barely reached the 223mph barrier, and his KV Racing teammates were even worse.

Ryan Hunter-Reay was not able to reach 223 mph, and his teammate Mike Conway had a best lap of just 219.359, in his 51 laps out on the track, 38th best of the 39 cars. We got to see Dan Wheldon hit the track for the first time this year, but his best lap was 221.272 mph.

When the drivers arrived at the track this past weekend, I had Tagliani listed as my dark horse for this race. Obviously the speeds on this first full day really don't mean anything, but he is definitely a driver that fans are going to see plenty of this month. Last year he missed practice time because of illness, but this year he looks ready to make up for it.

Tomorrow's weather calls for more of the same from today. The high is listed at 58 degrees and there will be plenty of cloud cover. As much rain as we have had in Indy the past couple of months, we will take any dry day we can, no matter the temperature.

Tomorrow's practice session will begin at noon again, running through 6pm.