Earnhardt to drive pace car at Indianapolis 500

INDIANAPOLIS >> Retired NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. will drive the pace car for the Indianapolis 500.

Earnhardt will drive the Corvette Grand Sport Official at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to lead the 33 drivers to the green flag May 26.

The NBC Sports analyst will be part of the broadcast team. It will be Earnhardt’s first trip to the Indy 500.

Earnhardt also drove the pace car at Indy last year for the NASCAR race. He opened this year’s NASCAR season driving the pace car for the Daytona 500.

This is the 16th year Corvette has served as the Indy 500 pace car and the 30th time a Chevrolet has led the field dating back to 1948, when a Fleetmaster Six convertible paced the race. ROME >> Four young men have been convicted of the deaths of two women in a soccer stampede in the northern Italian city of Turin and given prison sentences of just over 10 years.

The Italian news agency ANSA said the court on Friday ordered the sentences after convicting the men of involuntary manslaughter.

Prosecutors contended the defendants used an irritating spray to trigger panic so they could steal wallets and phones from fans who had jammed a public square to watch the June 3, 2017, Champions League Juventus-Real Madrid final on a giant TV screen. Some 1,600 people were injured.

An Italian woman died of her injuries several days later, while another woman, left tetraplegic by her injuries, died from complications in January 2019.