INDIANAPOLIS 500 / UPDATE : Temperature Falls, Speeds Climb During Practice

Drivers who have yet to qualify for the 500 found a cool day to their liking Thursday and produced impressive speeds during practice.

Jim Crawford, the Scotsman who holds the unofficial track record of 233.433 m.p.h., set last year in a Buick-powered car, was the fastest nonqualifier in one of Kenny Bernstein’s new Chevy-powered Lolas at 221.212 m.p.h. Others hoping to qualify Saturday include Robby Gordon, who ran at 221.136; Geoff Brabham, 220.967; John Andretti, 220.313; Davy Jones, 218.553; Dominic Dobson, 217.596; and Willy T. Ribbs, 216.951.

It was the fastest lap of the month for each of them.

Front row starter Mario Andretti reached 227.118 m.p.h. in the Newman-Haas Lola-Ford Cosworth, the fastest time this year.

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Robbie Buhl, who survived two crashes while driving for Dale Coyne, will not try to qualify for the 500, concentrating instead on running at Milwaukee on June 6.

“We are literally out of competitive equipment for Robbie,” Coyne said. “It would be a mad dash to get anything ready in time for him to have a fair shot at qualifying. So, we are getting ready for the rest of the season.”

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Stock car drivers Davey Allison and Kyle Petty visited the track Thursday, getting a look at Indy car speeds as well as the track where they will race in August of 1994.

Would Allison consider racing Indy cars at the Speedway?

“After I win my fifth Winston Cup championship,” he said, later adding: “Let me rephrase that. I’ll consider it after I win my fifth.”

He has yet to win his first.

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Jim Rathmann and the late George Salih will be inducted into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame tonight.

Rathmann won the 1960 race after a dramatic duel with Rodger Ward in which they swapped the lead 14 times in the last 250 miles. Salih built the winning cars for Sam Hanks in 1957 and Jimmy Bryan in 1958 in the back-yard garage of his home in Whittier.

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Nigel Bennett, chief designer for the Penske cars, was awarded the 27th annual Louis Schwitzer Award for his design of the 1993 Penske Indy car chassis. Bennett received $5,000 from the Society of Automotive Engineers.

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Jimmy Vasser, last year’s fastest rookie, registers from Discovery Bay, Calif., although he lives in San Francisco.

Discovery Bay is a golf resort north of Stockton, where Vasser’s father plays golf.

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Johnny Rutherford, three-time 500 winner, was signing caps, programs, scraps of paper, shirts, napkins, whatever at a senior’s day gathering at the speedway when he was asked: “JR, which is worse, this or driving a race car?”

“They’re somewhat alike,” Rutherford answered. “You never know what’s going to pop up in front of you.”