Graham Rahal gets Indy 500 ride as replacement for Stefan Wilson, who fractured vertebra in practice

By DAVE SKRETTA
AP Sports Writer

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Graham Rahal will replace the injured Stefan Wilson in the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing entry for the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday. Wilson was hospitalized with a fractured vertebra following a crash in practice on Monday. He was ruled out of the race, and that left car owners Dennis Reinbold and Don Cusick scrambling for a replacement less than a week before the green flag. Rahal was their first choice, but he’d spent his career tied to Honda, which powers the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team, while the Dreyer & Reinbold runs engines from rival Chevrolet. It took some tricky negotiations to get clearance from both manufacturers and sponsors and get the deal done.