TORONTO - Dario Franchitti had a positive start to the Honda Indy Toronto race weekend at Exhibition Place.The three-time defending IZOD IndyCar Series champion and defending Toronto race winner topped the first day of practice with a lap of 1:00.2786 (104.813 mph) in his No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.Rookie Simon Pagenaud was second quick (1:00.3904) in the No. 77 Schmidt Hamilton HP Motorsports Honda. Franchitti's Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Scott Dixon, who was runner-up in the race last July, was third at 1:00.5423.The top 21 cars, including Will Power in seventh place, were separated by 1 second. Practice (9:45 a.m. ET) and the three rounds of qualifications (1 p.m. ET) are scheduled for July 7.Justin Wilson, the 2010 pole sitter, was fourth on the time chart (1:00.6485) in the No. 18 Sonny's BBQ car for Dale Coyne Racing and Ryan Briscoe (1:00.6936) was fifth in the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske entry.Wilson was involved in a pit lane incident early in the morning session when his car "refused to go into neutral" and slid into the No. 7 Dragon Racing car of Sebastien Bourdais.Crew members Michael Cole of Dale Coyne Racing and Daniel Martin of Dragon Racing were treated and released from the infield care center. Raffi Aroyan of Dragon Racing was transported to St. Michael's Hospital for further evaluation, which revealed no injuries. Chuck Homan of Dragon Racing was treated at St. Michael's Hospital and released.Toronto's James Hinchcliffe did not participate in the afternoon session because of a mechanical issue with the No. 27 GoDaddy.com car. The Andretti Autosport team will replace the Chevrolet engine, which will result in a 10-grid spot penalty for the July 8 race.Quebec native Alex Tagliani, driving the No. 98 Team Barracuda-BHA car, also will incur a 10-grid spot penalty as the team chose to install its fourth fresh Honda engine of the season instead of refitting its Indianapolis 500 practice/qualifying engine after meeting the mileage limit of its Indianapolis 500 race engine (Rule 15.5.4.b violation). The No. 78 Lotus-HVM Racing car driven by Simona de Silvestro will receive a grid penalty because the team changed out the engine before it reached its mileage limit defined in Rule 15.5.1.Also on July 6, Tristan Vautier posted the quickest lap of the afternoon session and overall (1 minute, 4.7297 seconds) on the last of his 27 laps. That knocked 2009 Toronto winner Sebastian Saavedra (1:04.8965) of Team AFS from the top of the time sheet.Carlos Munoz, another first-time competitor at Exhibition Place, was third (1:05.0276) and Esteban Guerrieri, the 2011 race pole sitter and Firestone Indy Lights championship points leader, was fourth (1:05.0941). Oliver Webb, driving the No. 7 Lucas Oil/Sam Schmidt Motorsports car, was fifth (1:05.1199). The top nine cars were separated by 0.8968 of a second.DAY 1 NOTEBOOK:The IZOD IndyCar Series will compete in Honda Indy Toronto, an 85-lap race at 1 p.m. (ET) on Sunday. Firestone Indy Lights will compete in the Toronto 100, a 50-lap race at 4 p.m., Saturday. The Star Mazda Championship, part of the Mazda Road to Indy Ladder, will compete twice this weekend. Race #1 is slated for 12:10 p.m. Saturday, while Race #2 will take place at 9:50 a.m. on Sunday.***This is the fourth IZOD IndyCar Series event at Toronto's Exhibition Place. Dario Franchitti won the race last year. Power holds the qualifying record with a lap of 59.3535, 106.447 mph set last year. Past Indy car race winners Franchitti (2011, 2009, 1999), Will Power (2007, 2010), Justin Wilson (2005) and Sebastien Bourdais (2004) are entered in the event.***Live timing and scoring reports from the Honda Indy Toronto are available on the Internet at www.indycar.com. The live timing and scoring module provides statistical information, including track segment speeds, lap information and much more.Feature stories, reports, driver quotes and notes, and photos will be posted on the site each day. More detailed information, including media advisories and VNF coordinates, is available at media.indycar.com.***Sections of the 1.75-mile, 11-turn Exhibition Place street circuit for the Honda Indy Toronto have been repaved (short straight between Turns 2 and 3, and the apex of Turns 3, 7, 8 and 9)."Instead of doing patch work, we took out larger sections of track for a more consistent surface," event vice president and general manager Charlie Johnstone said.Helio Castroneves said the changes, especially transition areas of concrete to asphalt -- combined with the re-instituted push to pass -- will alter the car set-up and gearing.***Toronto resident Robert Herjavec, star of ABC's "Shark Tank" and CBC's "Dragons' Den" will serve as grand marshal of the Honda Indy Toronto. Herjavec and representatives of the Honda Indy Toronto opened the Toronto Stock Exchange on July 3.***The Honda Indy Toronto will mark the 13th Indy car event for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing on the streets of Exhibition Place and first since 2003. Team co-owner Bobby Rahal won in 1986.***Most (if not all) IZOD IndyCar Series drivers and team members arranged for something special to celebrate their first off weekend, which incorporated two holidays (Canada Day and Independence Day), since early May.For some, special meant time at home or enjoying leisure time at an Indiana lake (such as Ed Carpenter and his wife Heather). For Ryan Hunter-Reay, it was a trip to the Florida Keys to celebrate his first wedding anniversary and meet up with friends for some free diving and deep-sea fishing (with a catch that fed a party of eight), while Scott Dixon ventured to Spain to hook up with some old mates. Josef Newgarden, 21, beat the Midwest heat wave by heading to the air-conditioned movie theater with friends."It was nice to get away," Hunter-Reay said. "Beccy and I took a 3-4 hour boat ride to Islamorada and had dinner at the same place where we got married last year. Then we met some friends and fished and free dived the entire time. It was a perfect vacation."JR Hildebrand acted on an impromptu invitation from fellow racer Robby Gordon to turn a few laps in an off-road truck from the Stadium Super Truck Series that debuts in 2013."What am I doing here?" Hildebrand recalled thinking. "But I took it like I take everything else - just get up to speed and figure it out from there."Hildebrand caught some air in the Super Truck, which isn't what you want in an IndyCar."I got up to speed pretty quickly," said Hildebrand, driver of the No. 4 National Guard Panther Racing car. "Obviously, I was having to learn how to drive on dirt pretty rapidly, but I think there was an element to the truck that was more forgiving that what I'm used to in an IndyCar. So then it just became fun because you're throwing the thing through a corner and then catching some pretty serious air on the front straightaway jumps."IndyCar will always be my main focus, but I grew up liking all kinds of racing and open-wheel was always my main focus because it was the fastest and coolest. For me, it's always cool to try something different like off-road trucks, drifting, racing on dirt and other things like that because they've just always looked like fun."Mike Conway will take advantage of the break between the Honda Indy Toronto and Edmonton Indy by returning to his family's home in Kent, England. Conway's parents will watch him compete on the streets at Exhibition Place this weekend.***Selected quotes from Alex Tagliani's media availability:            ALEX TAGLIANI (No. 98 Team Barracuda - BHA Honda): "The last street course we went to was Detroit, it was our first race with Honda power and we qualified third, so I have good memories on what the car should feel like and we should not be too far off. Hopefully we can have a good car like we had in Detroit and have another great weekend." (Do you expect this year's race to be as eventful as last year's): "I think it's going to be the same. The composition of this track is what it is, so yeah there's the push-to-pass that's been added, I think you'll see more passing, it will be tough to defend because we've been used to 12 horsepower, we expect a lot more than that. I don't know the exact number, but I've been told it's a minimum of 50 horsepower when you go from 1.5 to 1.6 boost, the rest is just track related. You have places to pass in Turn 8, you have places in Turn 3, and Turn 1 has always been more difficult other than on restarts, because you're coming out of Turn 11 and it's a pretty quick corner so it's tough to stick your nose very close behind another car because of the loss of aero. But with the new aero package and the new chassis, the racing has been better everywhere. We're not missing any passes, the action has been pretty amazing, so I think push-to-pass will just make it more, but the track is what it is."Selected quotes from Ryan Hunter-Reay's media availability:            RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda Chevrolet): "This race is about (securing) points because it's such a wildcard. One year, you can be at the front and finishing on the podium, and the next year, you can find yourself struggling. It's a tough track to master. This is one of them where points can get mixed up quite a bit, so you just want to make sure you are at the front of the grid and try your best to stay out of trouble, but anyone can get in trouble." (About challenging for championship): "We do think about it. If we can put together the same second half of the season that we had last year we could really make this championship fight interesting. We certainly know that, but basically it's session by session. Race by race. Just keep those blinkers on and  do what we know how to do and that's being a threat to win on Race Day." (About winning the last two races): "I think this team has been strong all year. We were second in Brazil. Third at St. Pete and we started on the front row at Indianapolis. We've been running stronger. We had the right car and the right balance at the right time. The team is doing a great job with pit stops and I'm driving well on the track. Everything is reset this weekend."FIRESTONE INDY LIGHTS PRACTICE:At 9:45 a.m., the ambient temperature was 78 degrees with a relative humidity of 71 percent. Skies were fair. The track temperature was 98 degrees, according to Firestone engineers.9:45 a.m. - GREEN.10:45 a.m. - CHECKERED.IZOD INDYCAR SERIES PRACTICE:At 11 a.m., the ambient temperature was 82 degrees with a relative humidity of 71 percent. Skies were fair. The track temperature was 108 degrees, according to Firestone engineers.11:05 a.m. - GREEN. Track is open to all cars driven by rookies and drivers outside the top-10 in IZOD IndyCar Series point standings.11:06 a.m. - RED FLAG: #67 Newgarden has stopped on course. Crew reports car has no power. On pit lane, there is an incident involving car of  #18 Wilson and pit crew for #7 Bourdais.11:12 a.m. - GREEN.11:15 a.m. - RED FLAG. Medical crossing.11:29 a.m. - GREEN. Session has been extended by 10 minutes. Group A will end at 11:45 a.m. The session will end at 12:15 p.m.11:45 a.m. - Track is open to all cars.***IZOD IndyCar Series officials have penalized #3 Castroneves with a drive through for leaving early and #5 Viso with a drive through penalty for a pit lane speed violation.***12:05 p.m. - RED FLAG. #98 Tagliani spun at the exit of Turn 8. Behind, #18 Wilson makes contact with the tire barrier in Turn 8 to avoid contact with #98 Tagliani.12:12 p.m. - GREEN.12:15 p.m. - CHECKERED.***The following cars have been given a 10 grid spot penalty for unapproved engine changes between the Iowa event and Toronto: #78 De Silvestro, #98 Tagliani. #78 De Silvestro will also receive a 10 grid spot penalty at Edmonton for using her sixth engine of the season.***Statement from Justin Wilson, #18 Sonny's BBQ Honda, about this morning's opening practice session incident on pit lane.JUSTIN WILSON: "I came down pit lane and the car refused to go into neutral. So I was stuck in first, I couldn't get neutral, and, on top of that, these carbon brakes don't work when they're cold, so was hard on the brakes and I couldn't stop. At the last second, I tried to dive into the wall to take speed off, but those guys were there and had no idea I was coming and even diving to the wall I still hit them. I really hope they are OK." (About contact with wall in Turn 8): "I turned the corner and saw that the track was blocked and that Tag was in the wall," Justin added. "I couldn't stop, so rather than hit him head-on I just turned back and hit the wall. It was just a horrible session.  We'll just have to regroup and hopefully get back out for the next session."***IZOD INDYCAR SERIES PRACTICE #2:At 1:45 p.m., the ambient temperature was 90 degrees with a relative humidity of 57 percent. Skies were fair. The track temperature was 126 degrees, according to Firestone engineers.1:55 p.m. - GREEN.1:56 p.m. - RED FLAG: #67 Newgarden stopped on course in Turn 4. Car is towed back to the pit lane by Holmatro Safety Team.2:01 p.m. - GREEN.2:23 p.m. - RED FLAG: #38 Rahal has spun on course in Turn 6 and is in need of assistance. Car is restarted by Holmatro Safety Team and returns to pit lane under its own power.2:28 p.m. - GREEN.***IZOD IndyCar Series officials have penalized #20 Carpenter with a drive through for a pit speed violation.***2:35 p.m. - RED FLAG. #5 Viso is off course in Turn 3.2:36 p.m. - GREEN.***Crew for #27 Hinchcliffe reports a mechanical issue ended the team's session early.***2:49 p.m. - RED FLAG. #18 Wilson makes contact with the tire barrier in Turn 8. Car is restarted by the Holmatro Safety Team and returns to pit lane under its own power.2:52 p.m. - GREEN.2:55 p.m. - CHECKERED.

SATURDAY'S SCHEDULE:8-8:30 a.m. - Star Mazda qualifying8:45 - 9:30 a.m. - Firestone Indy Lights Sunoco Pole Qualifying (All cars)9:45 - 10:45 a.m. - IZOD IndyCar Series practice12:10 - 12:50 p.m. - Star Mazda Race #11:05 - 2:25 p.m. - IZOD IndyCar Series pole qualifying (knockout qualifying/Firestone Fast Six)4 p.m. - Firestone Indy Lights Toronto 100 (50 laps), NBC Sports Network (Taped, 5 p.m. July 12)