INDY 500 - Thursday, Midday Practice Report; Oladipo to Drive Pace Car.

Graham Rahal leads Thursday practice at midday. RIS/Larry Clarino

Indianapolis - RIS - May 17, 2018 - It is a lovely day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Sunny, about eighty degrees and practically no wind. In the first couple of hours we have seen all 35 entered cars on track. All the teams are working very hard today, due to a less than optimistic weather forecast for the upcoming days. Fast Friday has a 60% chance of rain, with 80% both Saturday and Sunday.

Graham Rahal leads the speed chart for today at 226.047, followed by Tony Kanaan at 225.896 and Marco Andretti at 225.584. Most crews were working on simulated qualification runs in the first two hours, with race setup work going on now. We would expect a lot of traffic later in the afternoon.

The day has been incident free with just a couple of yellows for debris and track inspections.

The announcement of the 500 pace car driver was made today. Indiana Pacers NBA team’s Victor Oladipo will be at the wheel of the 2019 Corvette ZR1.

Oladipo is the true team leader and spark plug of the Pacers, averaging 23 points in the 2017-2018 season. He also played for Indiana University from 2010 to 2013.

"This is a tremendous honor for me,” Oladipo said. "I'm so thankful Indiana continues to embrace me, from Indiana University to the Pacers and now the Indianapolis 500, the greatest race in the world. I would like to thank Chevrolet, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Pacers for allowing me this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Excited is a huge understatement to how I feel about this. I can’t wait."


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Volume 2018, Issue 5, Posted 2:14 PM, 05.17.2018