The track was made available for participants to practice on Thursday September 6 and Friday September 7, as well as Saturday morning. By Wednesday, several of the participants were arriving from the Cincinnati race held the previous weekend. Hometown driver Johnny Aitken, the 1916 Indianapolis 500 pole-sitter, and winner on Monday at Cincinnati, entered the event as the favorite. George Buzane's team was the first entrant to arrive from Cincinnati. Frank Gavin and Josef Christiaens of the Sunbeam team also arrived Wednesday. Christiaens' car, however would later suffer a broken crankshaft during a practice run. Despite round the clock work, the team would be unable to rebuild the engine and Christiaens was forced to sit out all three races.