How long before Indy 500 do hotels become tough to find? (Indianapolis: live, cars)

[Indianapolis Visitor]

About how long before Indy 500 race day are local hotels and motels likely to be booked up?

I'm likely to be in Indianapolis for part of May, and would like to see the Indy cars while there. I don't need to see the race itself, believe it or not -- taking in a few of the practice days is fine with me.

I checked out:

[url=http://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/indy500/eventinfo/35391-Schedule/]Indy 500 Schedule - Indianapolis 500 - Indianapolis Motor Speedway[/url]

... and get the impression that the schedule is:

5/13 - 5/17: Practice for the Indy 500
5/18: Fast Friday
5/19: Pole Day

5/20 - 5/25: I'm a little confused. Do the practices continue during this week? I couldn't tell from the link above.

For me, I'd like to see the cars, and stroll the pits (if I can) but not deal with the giant crowds. Any info on when the crowds get big and the motels get booked up will be much appreciated.

[grmasterb]

The track is huge, so the crowds don't get overly large until race day. Consider going on Carb Day. You can see the pit competition and the Indy Lights race.

Don't know what to say about hotels. Capacity has grown dramatically in Indy, and most who attend the race live reasonably close to Indy, so I suspect you shouldn't ever have difficulty finding a room.