INDIANAPOLIS - Track drying efforts are underway to get the Indianapolis Motor Speedway ready to go for qualifying at the first day of time trials for the 101st Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil.
More than two hours of rain from just before the planned start time of 11 a.m. bled into the 1 p.m. hour, but has since stopped within the last half hour.
The latest update from INDYCAR estimates the track drying process to take just over two hours at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with the goal of starting qualifying by 4 p.m. ET and local time.
We just clocked the lead safety truck at @IMS at 67mph - that’s good enough for the provisional pole. #Indy500 #IndyCar
— TrackSideOnline presented by Honda Racing/HPD (@tracksideonline) May 20, 2017
The hope is that will provide enough time to run through all 33 cars at least one time through the order.
Here’s the official word from INDYCAR:Efforts are being made to dry the track and Indianapolis Motor Speedway is prepared to extend today’s activities beyond 6 p.m. to execute first-day qualifying. All entrants will each get one qualifying attempt today in order to set the groups for Sunday’s qualifying session.
INDYCAR estimates Qualifications will begin at 4 pm.
An update from this morning is here and a link to the qualification process is here.