Both Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan had the fastest lap in the two opening practice sessions Thursday for the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi.Dixon was clocked at 27.3348 seconds in the morning session, as Tony Kanaan was able to do better in the afternoon with a time of 27.2453 seconds.Qualifying is set for Friday at 12:30 a.m. EDT; the race is scheduled to begin shortly after 12 a.m. Saturday. Rain is forecasted for Friday.The race is one of two points events this weekend for the IndyCar Series. Champ Car teams, some of which are making the transition to the IndyCar Series, are competing this weekend in the final Champ Car race at Long Beach. First practice Pos Driver Speed Time Laps 1. Scott Dixon 200.184 27.3348 47 2. Dan Wheldon 199.863 27.3788 43 3. Tony Kanaan 199.661 27.4065 36 4. Marco Andretti 199.165 27.4747 50 5. Helio Castroneves 198.521 27.5639 43 6. Danica Patrick 198.303 27.5942 35 7. Ed Carpenter 198.165 27.6134 40 8. Hideki Mutoh 197.794 27.6651 46 9. AJ Foyt IV 197.650 27.6853 4010. Darren Manning 197.558 27.6982 1811. Buddy Rice 196.995 27.7774 4612. Ryan Briscoe 196.190 27.8914 5113. Townsend Bell 196.116 27.9018 3214. Vitor Meira 195.582 27.9780 3517. Marty Roth 191.638 28.5538 5718. Roger Yasukawa 190.571 28.7137 3715. Ryan Hunter-Reay 194.878 28.0791 3716. Jay Howard 194.297 28.1630 61 Second practice 1. Kanaan 200.842 27.2453 58 2. Dixon 200.390 27.3067 56 3. Wheldon 200.250 27.3259 55 4. Castroneves 200.032 27.3556 27 5. Carpenter 199.737 27.3960 50 6. Andretti 199.675 27.4046 59 7. Briscoe 199.244 27.4638 39 8. Patrick 198.870 27.5155 55 9. Bell 198.005 27.6356 3010. Foyt IV 197.736 27.6732 3511. Manning 197.656 27.6844 4712. Mutoh 197.455 27.7127 5513. Hunter-Reay 197.129 27.7585 4514. Rice 196.961 27.7822 5915. Meira 196.495 27.8480 5416. Roth 196.070 27.9084 5417. Howard 192.840 28.3758 3118. Yasukawa 189.547 28.8688 17
IRL: Dixon and Kanaan lead in Motegi