Following a full day rain-out on Saturday, the NTT IndyCar Series has been forced to condense the entire Indy 500 qualifying schedule into Sunday.
The rain was intermittent throughout what was supposed to be the first day of qualifying, but it never stopped long enough to sufficiently dry the track.
After hours of waiting, IndyCar admitted defeat against Mother Nature and announced a revised schedule.
Starting Sunday morning at 9:30, drivers will be on track for a final practice session. They will be split into two groups, with each getting 30 minutes of track time.
Qualifying begins at noon, with each of the 33 drivers getting a single attempt. Positions 13-33 will be locked in at that time.
At 4:30 PM the Top 12 session will be run, locking in positions seven through 12.
Then at 6:00 PM eastern time, the Firestone Fast Six will be run. Each of the remaining six drivers will get one attempt to earn pole, and the first two rows will be set at that time.
There was originally going to be a new Fast 15 round as well, but that has been scrapped in order to get all running in on time.
The extended hours on Sunday will stretch teams’ stamina as they potentially complete three qualifying runs over the course of a single day.
Teams were optimistic and many completed their runs through tech inspection early Saturday, but that ended up being for naught.
Action begins Sunday at 9:30 eastern time, with the pole winner being decided near 6:30 PM.
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