Vasser posts decent practice speed at Indy

Tuesday, May 7, 2002 | 9:11 a.m.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Jimmy Vasser was the quickest of the drivers from the Las Vegas area with the 10th-fastest speed during the second day of practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 86th running of the Indianapolis 500 May 26.

Driving the Miller Lite/Rahal Letterman Racing Dallara/Chevrolet, Vasser toured the 2 1/2-mile oval at 224.988 miles per hour. Vasser's fast lap came near the end of his 26 laps of practice.

"We ran the backup car again," Vasser said. "The car felt good, and we quit a little early since we learned what we wanted to do with the chassis changes. All in all, they are inching away at it."

Meanwhile, two-time 500 winner Al Unser Jr., a part-time Henderson resident, broke in his primary race car with Kelley Racing. He drove his Corteco/Bryant Dollar/Chevrolet for a total of 20 laps with a fast lap of 219.520, the 25th fastest driver among 28 on the track, but considerably slower than his opening day lap of 226.885 in the team's backup car.

Teams only had 77 minutes of practice due to showers that delayed practice for almost six hours.

Mark Dismore, driver of a car owned by Sam Schmidt of Las Vegas, was 13th- fastest with a lap of 224.247 in the Grill 2 Go Chevrolet/Chevrolet.

"We're moving in the right direction," Schmidt observed. "Conditions got nasty (windy). Mark got out of the car and said 'you know, the wind is picking up and we're not going to qualify in this temperature. The car is capable of doing 227 so let's just park it."'

Rookie Anthony Lazzaro of Acworth, Ga., had a fast lap of 217.326 in a Sam Schmidt Motorsport-sponsored car, and rookie John de Vries of Las Vegas turned in 30 laps with a top speed of 215.192 in a car owned by Brayton Racing.

The top three speeds of the day came from defending 500 winner Helio Castroneves at 226.716 mph in the Marlboro/Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet followed by 500 rookie Laurent Redon of France at 226.147 and Felipe Giaffone at 225.930.