Rain Washes Out Brickyard Qualifying, Hurting Foyt, Carter

Rain on Friday forced cancellation of the second round of time trials for today’s Brickyard 400 NASCAR Winston Cup stock car race.

Officials of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and NASCAR finally gave up on qualifying at 4 p.m. CDT, three hours after the second round’s scheduled start.

The track was finally opened for a scheduled 30-minute practice session at 5:30 p.m. Another rain shower interrupted the action after about 15 minutes, but the cars were able to get back out to finish the practice after only a short delay.

Bobby Hamilton, who will start alongside pole-winner and defending race champion Jeff Gordon in today’s race, turned the fastest lap at 169.584 mph, followed by Gordon, 168.913; Rusty Wallace, 168.644; Dick Trickle, 168.631; Bill Elliott, 168.432; Dale Jarrett, 168.394; and Sterling Marlin, 168.058.

The 41-car field will be comprised, in order, of the 38 fastest cars from first-round qualifying on Thursday, plus three provisional starters based on series car-owner points. Four-time Indy winner A.J. Foyt and Pancho Carter were among six who failed to make today’s race.

Spokane’s Chad Little finished 20th at the Kroger NASCAR 200 Busch Grand National stock car race at .686-mile Indianapolis Raceway Park, won by Jason Keller of Greenville, S.C.

Johnny Benson finished 13th to take the series points lead from Little, who now trails by seven.

Danny Sullivan, injured in a crash Sunday during the Marlboro 500 at Michigan International Speedway, was released from Methodist Hospital.

Sullivan, 45, underwent surgery Tuesday at the Indianapolis hospital to repair a broken pelvis.”I can’t do anything for about a week,” he said. “And I’m going to be on crutches, a cane or a walker for about six weeks.”