Wednesday’s practice for the Indianapolis 500 was full of sunshine, heat, and a few surprises. It all began when I arrived at the Speedway around 8:30 this morning, and it was already 71 degrees. You could tell it was going to be a hot one, likely the warmest temperatures we’ll see before race day. Long sleeves and pants would not be necessary today.

Normally when I first arrive in the morning, the first place I head to is Gasoline Alley. Today was different though, as I got a tip from my friends at Panther DRR. This morning was qualifications for the Pit Stop Competition on Carb Day. The boys at Panther DRR finished with the quickest time of the ten cars that participated.

The crews for Ryan Briscoe, Marco Andretti, James Hinchcliffe, and Charlie Kimball will join the other seven for the competition on May 24. Those seven crews’ drivers are Ryan Hunter-Reay, Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Tony Kanaan, Will Power, and Takuma Sato. You can view many of these pit stops on my Twitter page, @IndyCarChad.

Between the pit stop qualifications and the start of practice, we learned from a report by Robin Miller that Buddy Rice has declined to drive the number 99 car, which was entered by Sam Schmidt. The leading candidates for that car now include Katherine Legge and Jay Howard. Bryan Clauson may still have a shot at it, but he is considered a long shot.

While hearing of that news, I saw a big crowd over near Ed Carpenter’s garage. It was Butler University men’s head basketball coach Brad Stevens and the Butler Bulldogs coming to visit the Speedway. They weren’t the only special guests of the day though, as a few Indianapolis Colts players, including quarterback Andrew Luck, stopped by to take it all in. Shortly after that Bob Jenkins reminded us that it was 20 years ago today that the legendary AJ Foyt announced his retirement here at the Speedway.

When practice began, temperatures were in the mid 80s with a fairly strong breeze blowing around. The temperatures kept rising throughout the day, reaching the 90 degree mark late in the day. Today was by far the biggest day as far as fan attendance goes. I noticed there were some long lines for food, and the yellow shirts had their hands full. People were coming in by the masses, as they knew it would be a picture perfect day at the track.

About an hour into the practice, an interesting moment occurred with one of the Dragon Racing machines. Sebastian Saavedra’s car was coming down the front stretch, when it suddenly sent debris everywhere. The slow-motion footage provided us with an awesome look at what had happened. The wrap on the car near the rear actually began peeling off, as bits and pieces of the wrap went flying into the air. It looked like confetti made out of small pieces of mirror glass. The clean up took about 15 minutes.

Many people expected speeds to be up a little, but many of the teams I spoke with told me they were working on race setups. With the threat of rain over the next four days, nobody knows how much more practice time will be available. Most everyone was working with their primary cars, trying to find the balance that their driver liked.

Happy Hour was once again filled with excitement and nervousness. There were 13 cars running nose to tail that featured a lot of passing and tense moments. The Hondas finally began to show up on the top of the speed charts in the final 30 minutes of practice. The wind once again limited the speeds somewhat, in addition to the teams using race setups instead of qualifying trim. We’ve had five days of practice and still haven’t had any accidents.

There were a total of 2,165 laps turned today around IMS, and Dario Franchitti had the fastest one at 224.236 mph. Tomorrow we see the first real threat of rain at the Speedway. The forecast is calling for a high of 78 degrees with a 40% chance of rain. The chances for precipitation increase throughout the day, so it may come later in the afternoon. Practice on Thursday is scheduled from Noon to 6 pm, with the public gates opening at 10 am.