INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana : Front-row starters Scott Dixon of New Zealand and Dan Wheldon of England led a rain-shortened final practice session here Friday for Sunday's 92nd Indianapolis 500.

Showers halted the "Carburetion Day" session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway after 11 minutes with Wheldon topping the speed chart at 223.934 mph (358.294 km/h) and pole-sitter teammate Dixon second at 223.028 mph (356.844 km/h).

"The month has gone pretty smooth," Dixon said. "You have to stay pretty quiet. It can all crash and fall apart on race day. We've been pretty happy but we want to see what happens on race day."

Showers were expected to keep cars off the track the remainder of the day.

"I don't think anybody got enough laps," England's Darren Manning said. "We simulated refueling and the pit stops. We're trying to see how far we can go on race day and it's pretty comfortable."

Dixon, seeking his first Indy 500 win, will start on the inside of row one with 2005 winner Wheldon beside him and Australian Ryan Briscoe on the outside, all racing for the lead in the first turn at the famed 2.5-mile (4km) Indiana.

"As long as we can lead the last one, I don't care who leads the first one," Dixon said.

"The weather (Sunday) is going to be a lot hotter than we have had all month. It's going to be a lot of step by step, trying to improve the car and doing the best we can."

Briscoe, making his first front-row Indy start, has learned that patience pays off even after weeks of waiting to race.

"You've just got to have a lot of patience around here," Briscoe said. "It really tests that part of your skills."

Danica Patrick, who last month in Japan became the first woman to win a major open-wheel race, starts in the middle of row two between Brazilian stars Helio Castroneves, a two-time Indy 500 winner, and Tony Kanaan.

"I don't know if anybody can say on Friday in conditions like this they feel great. It's OK," Patrick said as raindrops kept her in the team garage.

"It's disappointing. This is a day you like to get your last good feel for everything. At least I got to run in a little bit of traffic. It was slow traffic but at least I got a feel."

You just have to be careful and not make too many changes. I'm ready. I didn't go out there and think the car felt horrible. It wasn't great speed but that's the way it's going to be in the race. It's going to be a mess."

Michael Andretti, who owns Patrick's car, said teams have to be careful not to lose ground on a cool and rainy day when conditions and time are not similar to what is expected on race day.

"This place is so hard to predict," Andretti said. "You can't put too much credence on what happens today. That's one of the tricks of this place."

Fuel mileage and conservation was crucial to Patrick's win and her 2005 fourth-place Indy 500 finish, the best ever for a woman at this race.

Dixon, who used fuel management to win his first Indy-car victory in 2001, is wary of that strategy after leading much of the way but coming up empty in races at Japan and Kansas.

"I might have to think about stepping back to second, third and fourth to save fuel. It's definitely going to be in the back of our minds after the disappointments in the past couple of races," Dixon said.

"When it comes down to the end you don't want to win a fuel mileage race. You want to be racing at full speed and win it fair and square."

- AFP /ls