race. The first practice session was held the morning of Friday April 27, 2001. CART officials re-measured the track for scoring purposes, and utilized a length of 1.482 miles. At the time, NASCAR and IRL utilized a track measurement of . The first practice session saw no incidents. Tony Kanaan turned the fastest lap at 22.845 seconds (233.539 mph), a full second quicker than the fastest time reported during the test sessions. Friday afternoon practice The first crash of the weekend occurred during the Friday afternoon session, when Maurício Gugelmin crashed in turn 3. His car got loose exiting turn 2 and hit the inside wall at 66.2 g. His foot became lodged between the pedals, and the car accelerated. The car slid down the backstretch and hit the outside wall in turn 3 with a force of 113.1 g. The car continued to slide until it reached the apex between turn 3 and turn 4. Gugelmin claims to have blacked out during the crash, but he was not seriously injured. Gugelmin was wearing the HANS device. He withdrew, nursing bruised shoulders and ribs, and sat out the rest of the weekend. Meanwhile, Kenny Bräck upped the fastest lap of the day to 22.821 seconds (233.785 mph). Dario Franchitti logged the fastest single trap speed at the start/finish line, at 238.936 mph. During the day, some drivers remarked on the improvements made to the surface, that various bumps had been smoothed out. Most called the track very fast, and two-wide racing and drafting was observed. Bryan Herta likened the track to a bowl, calling it "fast and fun." Paul Tracy also called it "a fast track." Bruno Junqueira said it was the fastest track he had ever driven. An awestruck Nicolas Minassian compared it to a riding a roller coaster. Hélio Castroneves called the track "physical," due to the banking, and Cristiano da Matta echoed the sentiment. The first serious concerns about driver safety occurred on Friday afternoon. CART medical affairs director Steve Olvey would later report that two drivers felt dizzy and disoriented after running their cars at over , and that they felt they could not control their cars. The identities of the two drivers were not disclosed, but Tony Kanaan and Alex Zanardi later claimed they experienced the symptoms. Olvey later recalled that Max Papis was unable to tell the frontstretch from the backstretch when his crew