INDIANAPOLIS 500 DAILY REPORT : It’s Supposed to Be April Showers, but Practice Again Is a Washout

The wettest month of May in Indianapolis 500 annals lost another entire day to rain Wednesday. It was the third full day of practice lost.

The rain was so heavy that one of four tunnels leading to the track was closed because of flooding.

The track was been closed 34 hours 12 minutes since it opened May 4. The previous record down time was 25:37, in 1973.

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Front-row rookie Tony Stewart, three-time Indy 500 winner Johnny Rutherford and U.S. Auto Club Vice President Cary Agajanian will speak today at the International Motor Press Assn. luncheon at the Women’s National Republican Club in New York.

Saturday night, Stewart will drive a Chevrolet in a 100-mile USAC Silver Crown race at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

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The seventh row of the May 26 race may be one of the strangest mixes in the race’s 80-year history.

On the outside is the fastest qualifier ever, Arie Luyendyk and his 236.986-mph car. Next to him is the slowest qualifier to date, Albuquerque rookie Jim Guthrie, 222.394. And on the inside is the oldest qualifier, and the only woman, Lyn St. James, 49.

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Rick Neuheisel, University of Colorado football coach, will be a member of Buzz Calkins’ pit crew on race day.

“He’ll either be on the deadman valve on the fuel tank or be the lollipop man [holder of the stop sign on pit stops],” said Calkins, a Colorado graduate. Neuheisel attended last year’s race with Calkins’ father, Brad, but this will be his first time as a crewman.

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Luyendyk is the second driver to hold one- and four-lap qualifying records and also the race record at the same time. His 237.498 mph for one lap and 236.986 mph for four laps were set Sunday, while he still holds the 500-mile record of 185.981 set in 1990.

Parnelli Jones is the only driver to set and hold them in the same year. In 1963 his records were 151.847, 151.153 and 143.137.

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Fermin Velez, who completed his rookie orientation Tuesday, will become the first driver from Spain in the 500 if he qualifies this weekend.