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Hinchcliffe still leading the way at Milwaukee

James Hinchcliffe set the fastest time of the afternoon practice session at the Milwaukee Mile on Lap 4 at 165.677 mph (22.0549 seconds), but jeopardized his participation in single-car qualifications 2 hours, 30 minutes later when the No. 27 United Fiber & Data car made contact with Turn 2 SAFER Barrier on Lap 30.

“I just went in there behind Helio (Castroneves) and we’d just made a change and the car was actually feeling pretty good,” said Hinchcliffe, who also was fastest in the 60-minute morning session. “It hadn’t really made any sort of signals that we were loose mid-corner. If anything you’re battling understeer at that point. It just kind of went around. It was a pretty slow rotation – it wasn’t a quick snap. There’s no reason to think anything broke. I feel bad for the boys – obviously the car’s quick, so hopefully we’ll get it sorted for qualifying.”

Hichcliffe, who has an average finish of 4.67 in three starts at the Mile, enters the ABC Supply Wisconsin 250 at Milwaukee IndyFest off a season-high third place Aug. 3 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Qualifications are at 6 p.m. (ET). Live streaming video, augmented by real-time Timing & Scoring and the IMS Radio Network broadcast with Paul Page, is on IndyCar.com. The 250-lap race is at 3 p.m. (ET) Aug. 17 on NBCSN.

Ed Carpenter, who won in June on the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway oval, was .0951 of a second back in the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Ed Carpenter Racing car. Tony Kanaan, a two-time winner at Milwaukee, was third (164.710 mph) in the No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car and Verizon IndyCar Series rookie Mikhail Aleshin was fourth (164.680) in the No. 7 SMP Racing car. Josef Newgarden was fifth (164.032 mph) in the No. 67 Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing car.

Before the session, team officials confirmed that Ed Carpenter Racing and Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing would merge for the 2015 season. Details will be provided by the teams Aug. 17.

Pos. Car Driver Team Laps Time Gap
1 27 James Hinchcliffe CAN Andretti Autosport 30 22,054
2 20 Ed Carpenter USA Ed Carpenter Racing 66 22,149 + 0,095
3 10 Tony Kanaan BRA Target Chip Ganassi Racing 58 22,183 + 0,129
4 7 Mikhail Aleshin RUS Schmidt Peterson Motorsports 65 22,187 + 0,133
5 67 Josef Newgarden USA Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing 60 22,275 + 0,221
6 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay USA Andretti Autosport 38 22,309 + 0,255
7 2 Juan Pablo Montoya COL Team Penske 41 22,344 + 0,290
8 14 Takuma Sato JAP A.J. Foyt Enterprises 35 22,350 + 0,296
9 3 Helio Castroneves BRA Team Penske 61 22,423 + 0,369
10 25 Marco Andretti USA Andretti Autosport 31 22,430 + 0,376
11 77 Simon Pagenaud FRA Schmidt Peterson Motorsports 43 22,472 + 0,418
12 98 Jack Hawksworth GBR BHA / BBM with Curb-Agajanian 60 22,478 + 0,424
13 12 Will Power AUS Team Penske 60 22,554 + 0,500
14 9 Scott Dixon AUS Target Chip Ganassi Racing 49 22,574 + 0,520
15 19 Justin Wilson GBR Dale Coyne Racing 42 22,584 + 0,530
16 34 Carlos Muñoz COL Andretti Autosport – HVM Racing 44 22,591 + 0,537
17 15 Graham Rahal USA Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 40 22,664 + 0,610
18 83 Charlie Kimball USA Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing 52 22,672 + 0,618
19 11 Sebastien Bourdais FRA KVSH Racing 48 22,782 + 0,728
20 17 Sebastien Saavedra COL KV AFS Racing 68 22,871 + 0,817
21 8 Ryan Briscoe AUS NTT Data Chip Ganassi Racing 46 22,904 + 0,850
22 18 Carlos Huertas COL Dale Coyne Racing 56 22,935 + 0,881