Dominguez gets valuable track time

The rain cleared and the drivers who have not qualified for the Indianapolis 500 were able to get some valuable track time on Thursday.
Mario Dominguez, driving the No. 96 car for the Oxnard-based Pacific Coast Motorsports, turned 75 laps, his best at 219.929 mph. He was more than 3 mph off Will Power's top speed. Power was the fastest driver among those not qualified for the race.
"We had the opportunity to really work with the car," Dominguez said. "Almost like a test in that we tried so many different combinations. Now that we have some knowledge about the car under our belts, we will develop our qualifying set-up. It's tough to get the car stable, but I've got great engineers who are doing a very good job."
Conditions today are expected to be warm and sunny as teams prepare for qualifying on Saturday. The top-11 spots have already been determined with Scott Dixon on the pole. Drivers will begin qualifying for the remaining 22 starting spots on Saturday.
"There are so many factors here, it is really quite challenging, but I am excited about our progress," Dominguez said.
Michael Harvey, team manager for Pacific Coast Motorsports, said while his team did not gain any speed during Thursday's practice session, other teams lost speed.
"We are concerned about qualifying and obviously concerned about having enough speed to get in (the race)," Harvey said. "This wasn't a day for speed. It is a fine balance to work on qualifying and the race. We (also) did work on a stint with tires."