Veterans have had only one practice session this week, and although they can still test setups Friday and Saturday -- assuming the track is dry -- teams are doing anything they can to get ready for Saturday's pole qualifying.
Even if it's just making adjustments in the garage.
"The whole thing about this place is speed," said Buddy Rice, the 2004 Indy 500 pole winner and race winner. "If you can find a couple of tenths of a mile per hour by sitting there and looking at the car and cleaning it up and doing what you can, you're going to do that."
The lack of practice time may not hurt the drivers who come to Indy each year nearly as much as others.
Unification of America's two biggest open-wheel series, the Indy Racing League and the former Champ Car series, has created a large pool of talented rookies. Thirteen newcomers are trying to make the 33-car starting grid, which would be the biggest rookie class to stat in the since 1997.
IRL veterans believed the extended practice time on the 2.5-mile oval would help the ex-Champ Car drivers get more accustomed to driving on ovals for the rest of the season. But they also need time on the track to figure out how the changing weather and tricky winds can affect the car's performance.
"Obviously, we need the track time to continue our development of the car and this rain isn't helping," said Brazil's Enrique Bernoldi, who raced on Indy's road course as a Formula One driver. "It makes for long days just sitting around waiting. I'm not used to this."
And then there's rookie Jaime Camara, of Brazil, who crashed during Monday's rookie orientation practice.
He spent Monday night in the hospital after complaining of back pain, wasn't cleared to drive until late Tuesday afternoon and hasn't made it back onto the track yet.
"I was really looking forward to getting back into the car today to continue our preparation," he said. "It sets us back on track time, but it's the same for everybody."
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COACHING WASHOUT: Butler basketball coach Brad Stevens was supposed to be the honorary starter Wednesday. New Indiana basketball coach Tom Crean was slated to drop the green flag Thursday.
It turned out to be a coaching washout.
But it wasn't a complete bust for Crean, who had never been to the track until Thursday. He wound up spending hours on the speedway grounds, stopping in the garages of Penske Racing and Panther Racing before riding around the track with three-time race winner Johnny Rutherford.
Crean's choice of garages was not a surprise.
He chatted with Penske Racing president Tim Cindric, a former basketball player at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute and a member of the school's hall of fame. And he wanted to see Panther owner John Barnes, who started his IRL team with former NFL quarterback and current Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh is the sister of Crean's wife, Joani.
"It's the first time I've seen John since I have been the Indiana coach," Crean said. "We've known each other a long time. It's a lifelong friendship, and to know now that we are going to have a lot more time to be together and to know he is going to be a part of the scene with us at Indiana, means a lot."
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FAMILIAR TERRITORY: Rookie Justin Wilson isn't old enough to remember 1965 Indy champion Jim Clark, but the 30-year-old Englishman has followed the careers of two racing idols.
One was longtime F1 driver Nigel Mansell, whose two races at Indy in the 1990s made Wilson understand the allure of racing in Indianapolis.
The other may make last year's Indy champ, Dario Franchitti, feel a little older than 34.
"I first got to know Dario when I started racing at 16 years old," Wilson said. "I followed his career and he was somebody I admired. I like the way he drove, I like the way he raced."
Franchitti was at the track earlier this week but will not defend his title after moving to NASCAR this season. He's still recovering from a broken left ankle sustained in an April 26 crash.
But Wilson will have some old friends to help him get ready for the May 25 race. Dan Wheldon, the 2005 Indy Champ, and IRL regular Darren Manning grew up racing against each other in England and now find themselves trying to qualify for the biggest open-wheel race in America.
"Dan decided early on he wanted to come across here and race," Wilson said. "It's just coincidence that we all ended up here."
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CURRY RETURNS: Roth Racing hired longtime IndyCar veteran Larry Curry as its chief engineer Thursday.
He will oversee see the setups for Marty Roth's two-car team and also will be restructuring the team's engineering department. Curry had spent 31/2 years working for Tony George's team, Vision Racing, but will now be working with Roth, a Canadian, and Jay Howard, another rookie from England.
"Although we realize that changing team personnel at the season's fifth race may put us slightly behind the eight-ball, we fell that the knowledge and leadership Larry brings to the team will only make us better," Roth said. "Our team has made huge strides this year."
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PIT STOPS: Sarah Fisher, who now owns her own IRL team, announced Thursday that she had a new sponsorship deal with Direct Supply, a Milwaukee-based company that supplies equipment and e-commerce solutions to long-term healthcare communities. ... Team Moore announced rookie Pablo Donoso, of Chile, will join its Firestone Indy Lights team for the Firestone Freedom 100 on May 23. ... Vision Racing will offer free cholesterol checks to fans during Friday's scheduled practice session, but they'll have to get in line behind Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels. Daniels will be the first one to take the test Friday morning.
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