Mario Moraes leads Thursday practice at Indianapolis

AP photo: Mario Moraes

As race day edges closer, we're now starting to see who to look for up front on race day. Today's practice session had a few surprises and was a clean day of practice with everyone making it back to the garage in one piece.

There are two tiers of drivers now, those who are working on trimming out their cars for qualifying this weekend and those who have already
qualified and are working on race day setups.

The first surprise in today's session was Mario Moraes, already solidly in the field, topped the session at 222.739mph. His fast lap came on lap 38 of the 103 total laps he drove today.  Moraes will start 7th for the Indianapolis 500 next Sunday.

The second surprise was Oriol Servia, in his first day in the Rahal Letterman Racing #17 machine, taking 7th on the speed charts with 221.353. An astonishing performance due to the fact that Oriol hasn't been in a car since the season finale last season, same as Rahal Letterman Racing. If he can keep working on his speed, he looks to be a strong contender for the #23 starting spot this Saturday. He was the fastest today of drivers yet to qualify.

Townsend Bell also ran his first day of Indianapolis 500 practice today, putting up the 10th fastest lap at 220.938. A
very good showing for a strong driver who just jumped in the car this morning.

So is Moraes a car to look for on race day? Absolutely. Most qualified cars were either working on fuel mileage or handling in
traffic so they all had help from the draft throughout the day. Team Penske spent a good portion of the day running nose
-to-tail working on the handling characteristics of their cars in traffic.

RUMORS

The hot rumor in the pit lane is that Tomas Scheckter has secured a ride for a second Dayle Coyne owned car. If this is
true, he'll have to jump into the car tomorrow to log some laps, but if any of the drivers looking for rides can get up to
speed quickly, it's Tomas. He's been quick every year at the Indy 500 even bordering on too quick and aggressive. If the
rumor pans out, it'll be a great addition to the field and will make race day that much more interesting.

Another rumor is that former Indy 500 champion Buddy Rice may have secured sponsorship for this year's race, but time is
running out for Buddy and if he's not in a car by mid-day tomorrow, he'll have problems getting quick enough to make his
way into the field for the 93rd running of the Indianapolis 500.

For more info: Complete practice results from Thursday's practice