FT. WORTH, Texas - Vision Racing drivers Ed Carpenter and Ryan Hunter-Reay have completed the first practice of the weekend in preparation for the Bombardier LearJet 550k under the lights at Texas Motor Speedway. The duo were 12th and 18th fastest, respectively, out of 23 cars this evening and if the first practice was any indication, Saturday's race will be action-packed given the side-by-side driving on the 1.5-mile oval.
 

Driving the No. 20 Menards/Vision Racing Honda powered Dallara, Carpenter's fastest lap tonight came in at 213.185 mph. He completed 49 total laps in the session. 
 

Carpenter's best finishes at Texas in 2006 and again last season when he finished ninth. His best start in seven appearances at Texas came in 2004, his rookie season at Cheever Racing, when he started seventh.
 

Last weekend at Milwaukee, Carpenter made his sixth start at The Milwaukee Mile and drove from the 19th spot, to as high as 15th and held on to finish 16th. Carpenter worked his in-car adjustments to little or no avail and battled poor handling all day, but still managed to bring the car home in one piece and finish the race.
 

Most recently, Carpenter, wife Heather, and daughter Makenna welcomed the newest member of the family to the world on June 1st. Ryder Carpenter was born to Ed and Heather checking in at 8 lbs. 1 oz., and 20 inches in length. 
 

The Dallas, Texas born, Hunter-Reay put down a best lap of 211.990 mph in the No. 21 IZOD/Vision Racing Honda/Dallara/Firestone machine tonight. His lap count on the evening was 38 total revolutions.
 

Hunter-Reay made just his first start at Texas Motor Speedway last season while driving for Rahal Letterman Racing. He started the race in 10th and had a strong run going until he and Marco Andretti were involved with a heavy crash just five laps from the finish. As a result he was credited with a 20th place finish.
 

Most recently at Milwaukee, Hunter-Reay started from 18th on the grid, climbed as high as 11th and eventually finished in the 12th position in his fifth open-wheel start at Milwaukee.
 

Hunter-Reay is currently tenth in the IndyCar Series championship point standings. Unfortunately a 12th place finish at Milwaukee caused him to slip from ninth to tenth with 102 points (59 points behind leader).
 

Overall, Vision Racing returns to Texas Motor Speedway for the fifth time. The team's best start at the Texas came in 2006 when Tomas Scheckter started fifth while the best finish came that same year and again last year when Carpenter finished ninth.
 

IndyCar Series practice resumes Friday at 2 p.m. local time with qualifying being aired live on VERSUS at 6:30 p.m. ET.
 

Saturday's 228 lap/342 mile Bombardier LearJet 550k at Texas Motor Speedway will air live on Saturday, June 6 at 9 p.m. ET on VERSUS as well as IMS Radio Network, XM IndyCar Series Racing Channel 145, XM Sports Nation Channel 144 and on the web at www.IndyCar.com.
 

Practice Results and Quotes: (June 4, 2009)
 

Ed Carpenter - No. 20 Menards/Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone
Top Speed in Practice: 213.185 mph
Overall Rank in Practice: 12th on speed chart
Number of Laps in Practice: 49
 

On qualifying:
"We made some good changes to the No.20 Menards Johns Manville car tonight but it was a bit hard to gage because we could only use one set of tires. We end up battling the car and chasing the tires at the same time as a result. We took some positives steps but we need a bit more to make it better for the race and be able to run in the top-five. We do have some good things in mind for what we can do so I'm looking forward to tomorrow's practice. Tonight's practice was a bit crazy. I'm sure Brian Barnhart was stressing out up there in race control. I don't know if I'm getting older or wiser but I found myself stressing out a little myself at the end of practice when I saw a few close calls. There are guys in fast cars that don't have the experience on mile and a half ovals that need to figure out what their doing pretty quickly or they are going to cause an accident."
 

Ryan Hunter-Reay - No. 21 IZOD/Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone
Top Speed in Practice: 211.990 mph
Overall Rank in Practice: 18th on speed chart
Number of Laps in Practice: 38
 

On qualifying:
"We got a good read on the No.21 IZOD William Rast car in traffic and that's the most important thing but we're not where we need to be running on our own. We do know what steps to take for Friday's practice. We ended up further down the timing charts than we'd like but we made more progress in this practice than we did in Kansas and we view that as a positive."
 
 

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