Race fans, rejoice, because the likelihood of Sunday's weather-delayed Indianapolis 500 starting and finishing before sundown is starting to appear more likely with each passing moment.

After what had been roughly a three-hour weather advisory for storms moving through Indianapolis Motor Speedway — starting at 11:17 a.m. before being lifted at 2:17 p.m. — the track's president Doug Boles provided an update to the media at 2:30 p.m. expecting the 108th running of The Greatest Spectacle in Racing to begin at 4:44 p.m.

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"The lightning we had, we fortunately did not have as much lightning as we thought we'd might. However, we did have enough to give our fans the opportunity to get out of the grandstands and not feel panicked to get there. That's the good news on where we are today," Boles said. "The other good news is with this passing storm, we are hopeful we can restart — or start — the Indianapolis 500 shortly this afternoon and hopefully get the entire race in. The plan all along has been to get the Indianapolis 500 in today. And I believe we are on track to do that."

Boles also announced the live blackout has been removed over Central Indiana as NBC affiliate WTHR will televise the 200-lap race live to residents surrounding the legendary 2.5-mile oval. 

As for prerace festivities, Boles said that "military segments," flag presentation colors, invocation, ceremonial taps that prelude the national anthem, the national anthem, the song Back Home Again in Indiana, the command to start engines and the flyover will remain in place.

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Should the 500-mile race start at 4:44 p.m., the checkered flag will likely fall around 8 p.m. With the sunset at 9:03 p.m., the race should have enough sunlight to be completed in full as long as there are no more storms. Boles and Speedway officials are monitoring a second storm that could arrive shortly after 8 p.m., but they are hopeful it won't come to that point.

"We feel pretty comfortable with that," Boles said. "Again, we have to continue to watch that. If it comes through with lightning, we'll be in one of those situations again where we give people enough time to get out of the racetrack. But right now it looks clear and we feel like we can get 500 miles in.

"It's a good day, I hope," he added. "I hope we can get this going. We did check in with our friends in law enforcement to make sure they were comfortable with this process. Everybody seems to be on board. It's one of the great things about this community. We all work together to put on the world's largest single-day sporting event in Indianapolis."