While NASCAR might have overcome the hurdle created by the pandemic, it is presented with a new natural hurdle in the form of rainfall.
NASCAR successfully organized its first race after 10 weeks at Darlington Raceway on Sunday, May 17. The last race was held at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, March 8.
The Real Heroes 400, 293-lap race went smoothly as planned with all the social distancing guidelines in place. Kevin Harvick of Stewart-Haas Racing won the race with Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman finishing second.
Next up for NASCAR is another race on the same track on Wednesday. However, things might not go according to plan due to the weather conditions on that day.
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The Weather Channel forecasts a 100% chance of rain with thunderstorms on Tuesday and 90% chance on Wednesday in Darlington.
Jim Utter of Motorsport outlines the plan to organize the races that might be affected.
If Tuesday night’s Xfinity race is postponed, it will run at noon ET Thursday. If both the Xfinity and Cup races are postponed, Xfinity will run at noon ET Thursday and Cup will run at 7 p.m. ET Thursday. If just Wednesday’s Cup race is postponed, it will run at noon ET Thursday. All races will be broadcast on Fox Sports 1.
Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer previously stated the possibility of changing the schedule as per the weather conditions.
We would have an extra day, or maybe even two on the back end of Darlington to try and get these in. A lot of that will depend too on television windows to make sure things are available.
We’ve got some built-in time, but hopefully we’re able to get both races in.