INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Scott Sharp is hoping another year of good practice will translate into a better Indy 500.

Sharp posted the fastest speed in a practice for the second time this week. His best lap Wednesday was 228.350 mph on a humid day. He led the opening day of practice on Sunday with a 227.571.

"It's exciting for sure," Sharp said. "We'd like to start the race in the first couple of rows if we can."

Sharp won the pole position for last year's Indianapolis 500 but crashed as he went through the first turn. He said he felt he had something to prove to himself and his team but wouldn't look back at the crash.

"I don't relate what happens now to last year," he said.

Rookie Laurent Redon still has the fastest lap of the month with a 229.808 on Tuesday.

Redon was second Wednesday at 228.046 and defending champion Helio Castroneves was third at 228.036. Four others topped 227 in the busiest day of practice so far, with 32 drivers.

"The car's running great, but there's probably 12 cars running great," Sharp said. "We're pumped, but it's only Wednesday"

Practice was delayed 3½ hours by rain on Wednesday, the third straight day of abbreviated racing. Rain was predicted again for Friday, so Sharp wanted to push his No. 8 car.

"We said we better make a run for it now to see what our four-lap qualifying run might look like in case we can't get it in until sometime Friday," he said. "You don't want to be up against the fence on Friday afternoon and have some sort of problem and feel like you never got your qualifying run in."

Sarah Fisher and Tomas Scheckter each practiced for the first time on Wednesday.

Fisher signed earlier in the day with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing to drive the No. 23 car, ending a nearly month-long break without a team. She drove her first 39 laps in the Racing G Force Infiniti, finishing with a disappointing 222.773.

"It felt really good to get in the car and just get comfortable again," she said. "As I kept getting more confident in how the car would perform, it kept getting better and better. No matter where I go on the track, the car does what I want it to do."

Scheckter was suspended last week for the first three days of Indianapolis 500 practice because of unsportsmanlike conduct at the Firestone Indy 225. He finished at 225.803.

Fisher said the rain helped her not fall too far behind the other drivers.

"It's not as horrible this year. I'm not stressed out," she said. "I'm just going to go at, get in the car and do my thing and come out top."

Two-time Indy winner Arie Luyendyk said the break gave him added time to work on his car.

"I think it just hurts everybody," he said. "It affects everybody. Each day you go out and it rains like it did, it cleans off the track and you start with a fresh track. So we haven't really got any grooves laid down on the race track."

Luyendyk tinkered around with adjustments to his car but said it was difficult to gauge how many he should make.

"It just doesn't give you the opportunity to try different things on your car and then go back to the garage, change the car and go back out," he said.

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