Wednesday practice rained off at Indy
The weather conditions at Indianapolis could be a serious concern for this weekend's Indy 500 qualifying after today's practice session was rained off
More rain is expected on Thursday and Friday, meaning drivers and teams might have had very little running when pole qualifying begins on Saturday. Even more rain is forecast for Sunday, throwing the possibility of more delays into the mix.
Helio Castroneves, who has two poles and two wins in the Indy 500, admits that the teams and drivers would like at least one more day of dry practice to be comfortable going into qualifying.
"With only one day of track time under our belts, we're not quite where we want to be with the car," he said. "Hopefully we'll get some clear weather before Pole Day so we can fine-tune the qualifying trim. We had a productive day yesterday, but we certainly still have some work to do before qualifying."
Track activities were cancelled at 3:15pm local time after changeable weather prevented circuit officials from drying the track. Another session is scheduled to begin at noon Thursday, but the forecast predicts a 70 per cent chance of rain, with thunderstorms likely.
The weather delay was particularly troubling for the teams contesting the Indy 500 as a one-off, who are already limited on time and resources.
"The rain today is very disappointing," said Sarah Fisher, who is fielding her own team this year. "We really needed the track time today to help the start of our team. We haven't had any track time yet this month. That really puts us behind for the month and for qualifying."
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