Soggy Indy 500 doesn't dampen spirits

INDIANAPOLIS -- Before Buddy Rice took the checkered flag at the Indianapolis 500 Sunday, the rain had scared off about half of Kevin Kuehn's group of friends from Green Bay, Wis.\nBut Kuehn, sporting a Coors Light hat and a red rain jacket, said after the race that the wait was worth it.\n"It's Indy," he said, as the track-side screen flashed a tornado warning. "We'll be back next year."\nThe day at the track began and ended with ominous storm clouds and downpours, but somehow, amid a windy, stormy afternoon, there was time for 180 laps and an exciting finish -- a payoff for thousands of soggy, but enthusiastic, race fans.\nThe start of the race was delayed two hours by rain and was stopped for rain about 45 minutes later on lap 28. About two hours later the race got the green flag again, only the third time in track history that has happened on the same day after a rain delay. The race has been delayed five times in the past 10 years due to rain.\n"I would've lost money twice today," State Police Sgt. Andy Clarke said. "I didn't think we'd see the first green. And I didn't think we'd see the second."\nAfter the rain returned again, and Rice took the simultaneous yellow and checkered flags, race fans flocked to the exits to the sounds of tornado sirens.\nLori, an usher from California, said the day could have been worse. She was assigned to pit duty in 1997 when it rained so much the race wasn't completed until Tuesday. She was surprised to see so many people leaving the track when the first red flag flew. \n"Everybody says just wait five minutes with Indiana weather, and it'll change," she said.\nAnd it did -- long enough, at least, for the race to be official (101 completed laps).\nMany fans braved the rain by hoisting umbrellas and staying in their seats or seeking cover under the stands or elsewhere.\nValerie Leak took a nap on a concrete landscaping curb in the shadow of the Bombardier Pagoda, while her husband, Jeff, kept an eye on an umbrella, rain jackets and coolers. \nThe Indianapolis couple, who haven't missed a race in 10 years, never considered leaving. Others headed to the gift shops, where items like dry T-shirts, stuffed "500" monkeys and die-cast race cars, particularly that of 2001, 2002 Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves, flew off shelves.\nOf course the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's official $5 ponchos and $18 umbrellas were popular as well. \nDrivers waited out the delay in their trailers or garages, half expecting the race would be delayed until Memorial Day or later.\n"This race is so big, I will run it whenever they want to," Sam Hornish Jr. said. "If they say line up at 2 o'clock in the morning, I will be out there to go."\nJeff Leak, of Indianapolis, woke up his wife for the exciting finish. "Rain is just part of it," he said, "so you gotta' live with it."\n-- Contact staff writer Cory Schouten at cschoute@indiana.edu .