Scott Dixon topped the time charts in practice for Monday's Indianapolis 500, with the Kiwi driver holding pole position for IndyCar's most iconic race.
The 40-year-old, and six-time IndyCar champion, put in the fastest lap at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday morning (NZ time), finishing with a best of 39.4178 seconds, with a best speed of 228.323m miles per hour (367km/h).
His result was over two-tenths of a second faster than second place, Team Penske's Simon Pagenaud.
The Chip Ganassi driver will start at the front of the grid on Monday morning (NZ time), as he bids to win the Indianapolis 500 for the second time in his career, having previously done so in 2008.
Practice was delayed by more than two and a half hours, as rain swept over Indianapolis.
"Everybody felt like King Kong out there with the weather conditions," Dixon said afterwards.
"That may give you an indication of how the race will be.
"If it's like this, it's going to be mentally draining. There's going to be a lot of action going on."
Dixon has also started from pole in 2015 and 2017, and last year finished second to Takuma Sato at the Indy500, on his route to his sixth career title.
Elsewhere, fellow Kiwi Scott McLaughlin put in an impressive display to come away with the seventh-fastest time in Saturday's practice session.
In his first appearance at the Indy500, McLaughlin's best time was 39.7892.
The result was a marked improvement on McLaughlin and Team Penske's performance in qualifying, with the reigning V8 Supercars champion to start 17th on the grid in the Indy500.
McLaughlin qualified as the fastest of Team Penske's cars, but was beaten in practice by teammates Pagenaud, Josef Newgarded and Will Power, who put up the second, third and sixth-fastest laps in practice.
Speaking earlier this week, McLaughlin said that Team Penske were confident of a strong Indy500 showing - despite their poor qualifying performances.
"If we can get it all right on the day, we have the pace to maintain a good position," he said.
"We all have the ability to come through the field and our pace in race trim has been strong.
"It's a wild race, and with strategy and stuff, you shouldn't count us out yet.”
Qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 was decided by a driver's average speed over a four lap stint, as opposed to fastest time.
