Persistent rain hampers track time at Indy

INDIANAPOLIS – Less than one frantic hour of track time was all the frustrated teams at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway got Wednesday, another in a series of wet Indiana days this month.

With the final weekend of qualifications for the May 25 Indianapolis 500 coming up quickly, qualified and non-qualified teams and drivers waited around nearly all day, hoping to get in some work on the historic 2 1/2 -mile Indy oval. The track was finally dry enough to allow some running with just more than an hour left in the scheduled six-hour session.

IRL IndyCar Series officials opened the track under a yellow flag, but the green flag finally flew minutes later and 30 cars made it onto the track before rain began falling again, ending the day 10 minutes early.

Since practice opened with a dry day on May 7, two full days of practice and one of the four scheduled qualifying days have been completely washed out.

With qualifying set to resume Saturday – weather permitting – 22 of the 33 starting spots for the 500-mile race remain to be filled.

Pole-winner Scott Dixon, who led first-day qualifiers into the field Saturday, was fast again at 222.834 mph, followed by Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Dan Wheldon, also last Saturday’s runner-up, at 222.810.

Other drivers near the top of the speed chart included Andretti Green Racing teammates Marco Andretti, rookie Hideki Mutoh and Danica Patrick, all among the Saturday qualifiers, along with non-qualified veterans John Andretti and 2004 Indy winner Buddy Rice.