The Indianapolis Motor Speedway had everything going for it entering the month of May and one of its biggest events of the year, but the weather is playing havoc with the speedway.

Entering the month of May, there was the unification of major open-wheel racing in America, Danica Patrick recorded her first victory and Graham Rahal was the first of the transition drivers to pull into the winner’s circle.

Rain washed out several days of practice before the opening weekend of qualifications for the Indianapolis 500, and the second day of time trials was a complete washout.

More rain is forecast in Indiana for the next five days, which puts in jeopardy three practice days and the final two days of qualifications this coming weekend.

The remaining 22 cars in the provisional starting field are supposed to be filled Saturday, which makes Sunday the traditional “bump day.”

What happens when rain washes out the practice days and threatens to shorten or eliminate the qualifying days is that teams will take a time and hope it will be good enough to make the Indy 500.

It will almost be a safe bet to expect the speeds on Saturday and Sunday to be considerably slower than last weekend.

In some respects, pole day was a disappointment. Anyone with ties to the Hoosier State knows that “Happy Hour” at the Speedway runs from 5 to 6 p.m. when ideal track conditions are expected to make a qualifying attempt.

This past weekend, Dan Wheldon and Tomas Scheckter were the only drivers in the top 11 spots to withdraw their times to make a qualifying run during Happy Hour.

Wheldon’s speed over the four laps improved, but not enough to knock Scott Dixon from the pole position. Scheckter was 11th before his late run and was unable to improve on that spot.

I was disappointed that the Andretti-Green Team of Patrick, Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti and Hideki Mutoh opted not to make a late push for the pole position. Team Penske also let Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves sit on their times.

Thirty-two drivers practiced on Saturday, but only 17 made qualifying attempts. I’m sure many of those teams that didn’t attempt a qualifying run knew they were not going to be competing for a position in the first four starting rows and would have made an attempt on the second day.

Saturday should be full of activity, especially with the threat of rain on Sunday. It could be a case of make the show on Saturday or wait until next year.

Unfortunately last week, Patrick hit a crewman from Coyne Racing on pit lane during a practice session.

The crewman and Patrick both can share a little bit of the blame for the incident. First of all, a cardinal rule is when you’re on a “hot” pit lane, be aware of what is taking place around you. The crewman should have seen Patrick’s car and moved to the right to avoid it.