Rain Delays NASCAR At The Bristol Speedway

Rain Delays NASCAR At The Bristol Speedway

Despite the delay caused by rain, the NASCAR got underway at the Bristol Motor Speedway. Rain caused the Food City 500 to be delayed for around five hours. It was the second Sprint Cup race to experience delays this year.

The first delay lasted for almost two hours while the second delay lasted for over three hours. The race finally restarted at past 7:00 PM. The first restart at 2:57PM saw Denny Hamlin starting at the pole and turned in the fastest qualifying lap in the history of the Bristol Cup with 129.991 MPH.

One hundred eighteen laps were completed by drivers before it started to rain resulting to the raising of the caution flag at the Bristol Motor Speedway. The red flag was dropped by NASCAR on the 125th laps drivers were compelled to park their cars and wait for the rain to stop.

On the lead was Matt Kenseth with Jamie McMurray coming in at second. The pair was followed by Brad Keselowski and Kurt Busch. Prior to the raising of the caution flag, the front right tire of Jimmie Johnson blew, which forced him to make a pit stop. On lap fifty, he also changed the tires on the left side. When the red flag came up, Johnson was behind by two laps and was in 39th place.

A total of five hundred laps was scheduled around the 0.533-mile oval for the race. Since the race already reached halfway through the total number of laps, a winner can be declared once it is completed. A 90 percent chance of rain was forecasted by the National Weather Service for Sunday. Monday is forecasted to have around 60 percent chance of rain.

Last February 23, the Daytona 500 was also delayed for over six hours due to rain. The season-opening race of the NASCAR was won by Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The Air Titan track drying system was utilized by the NASCAR in drying out the Bristol oval following the delay due to rain.

Posted by Andre Monohan on Monday March 17 2014, 4:36 AM EST. Ref: USA Today. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0