FONTANA, Calif. – The track lights came up, the racing surface and ambient temperatures fell precipitously from the late afternoon and 22 IZOD IndyCar Series cars piled up 2,594 laps during an eight-hour private test Sept. 12 in preparation for the MAVTV 500 INDYCAR World Championships at Auto Club Speedway.

The final 15 minutes on the 2-mile oval reflected Carb Day practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Two- and three-wide down the 11-degree banked frontstretch, and it wasn’t even an official practice session. The top 17 cars were separated by 0.4053 of a second.

A 90-minute practice session for the 250-lap race Sept. 15 precedes qualifications at 2:15 p.m. (PDT).

Scott Dixon vaulted to the top of the speed chart with 1 minute, 20 seconds left in the session that started at noon with a lap of 215.861 mph in the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car without aid of a tow. Dixon, who completed 131 laps, trumped Marco Andretti in the No. 26 Team RC Cola car (215.779 mph, set mid-afternoon).

Series championship front-runner Will Power was third-quick (215.761 mph on 136 laps) in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car, while teammate Ryan Briscoe followed at 215.133. Josef Newgarden, driving the No. 67 Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing car, advanced three positions in the final hour to finish fifth at 214.948.

"It's a good start to the weekend for the Verizon team,” said Power, who also tested at the speedway last week. “The car was good and we just kept getting better and better as the day went on. I think we're in pretty good shape for qualifying. We're ready. Now we just need to go out and get it done."

Championship rival Ryan Hunter-Reay, who enters the title-deciding race 17 points arrears, had an unwanted five-hour break in his day after the No. 28 Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda car spun and made contact with the Turn 2 SAFER Barrier. After suspension repairs and changing out the damaged Chevrolet engine, Hunter-Reay made his back onto the D-shaped oval for another 20 laps with 40 minutes left on the clock.

"The car was pretty loose on the first run and we went for a second run on it,” said Hunter-Reay, who has two short-oval victories this season. “We probably got a little greedy with it as light as we were running on downforce (in qualifying trim).”

During his absence, Andretti Autosport teammates James Hinchcliffe, Sebastian Saavedra and Andretti were working on a variety of set-ups to share data.

The track temperature was 112 degrees with an air temp of 89 degrees at 5 p.m. – a few minutes after the green flag for the race. It dropped to 102/87 an hour later and to 93/84 at 7 p.m. By the end of the session, which will coincide with the final laps of the race, the ambient was 78 degrees and the track 85.

“As the lights come up, the track temperature goes down quickly,” Target Chip Ganassi Racing managing director Mike Hull said. “It will take the best team of people combined with their driver to tune the car for the dash at the end. The aero spec will be very much like Indianapolis with five to seven pit stops, lots of strategy, and plenty of wheel-to-wheel action.”

E.J. Viso and Briscoe also had contact (Briscoe’s as the session expired). Neither driver was injured. Viso did not return to the track after recording 40 laps.

"Aside from the impact at the end, it was a really good test day overall,” Briscoe said. “I just got on the high line and hit a bump at the entry of Turn 3 and it just spun around. I feel bad for the guys as it creates a lot more work for them, but the impact wasn't too bad.

"We did a lot of set-up work on the No. 2 IZOD car and we learned a ton. We'll take all that information and move forward for qualifying and for the race.”

The season finale is the first 500-mile race other than the Indianapolis 500 under INDYCAR or Champ Car since 2002 (won by current KV Racing Technology co-owner Jimmy Vasser) at Auto Club Speedway with an average speed of 197.995 mph.

“In Indy car racing, regardless of the length it is, it's still about optimizing yourself at full speed, for each segment of that race,” Hull added. “The last 25 percent of this race is where the drivers will need to able to adjust his/her drive style, and the teams use the data they have to help it, and make the changes they can make. I think it will provide a great shootout.”

Castroneves-Dixon duel for third place

Castroneves, who has two pole starts and has finished in the top 10 six times in eight starts at Auto Club Speedway from 1998-2005, is seeking to remain third in the final IZOD IndyCar Series standings.

It would mark his best championship finish since 2008, when he was runner-up to Scott Dixon. Castroneves holds a one-point lead over Dixon entering the MAVTV 500 INDYCAR Championships at Auto Club Speedway.

A podium finish in the 250-lap race would be the 70th of Castroneves’ Indy car career (12th on the all-time list), and a second-place finish would be his 30th (tying Bobby Unser, A.J. Foyt and Al Unser Jr.). Dixon also has 29.

“It is going to be very competitive out there and I’m excited to see how the championship plays out over the 500 miles,” said Castroneves, driving the No. 3 Auto Club Team Penske car. “Our car has felt strong all year long thanks to my crew and Chevrolet and hopefully we can finish with an awesome race.”

Team to honor Roembke

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has competed in all 10 previous Indy car races at Auto Club Speedway (one victory by Jimmy Vasser in 2002, four podiums). The No. 15 entry for Takuma Sato will be the 20th Indy car entry for the team at the track. 

The team will honor Scott Roembke by placing decals with his initials on the race cars and by wearing black armbands at the IZOD IndyCar Series event and the American Le Mans Series event at Virginia International Raceway. The team COO died Sept. 9.

Of note

The Firestone Firehawk tire spec selected for Auto Club Speedway is identical to the spec used for the Firestone 550 at Texas Motor Speedway in June. ... Oriol Servia will make his sixth start at Auto Club Speedway (two in Indy Lights).  He clinched the 1999 Indy Lights championship at the track.