CONCORD, N.C. — NASCAR’s longest race of the season spilled into a second day Sunday night when the Coca-Cola 600 was postponed by rain for the first time in 50 years.
Light rain had delayed the scheduled 6:03 p.m. EDT start at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, but the track appeared dry and NASCAR called the cars out to pit road moments before a heavy shower soaked the surface again. The heavy rain lasted less than 15 minutes, but a persistent drizzle made it impossible to dry the track.
The race will run today at 10 a.m. MDT. It’s the first time it will be held on Memorial Day.
“We have a ton of family members and friends in town this weekend, and of course the big plan was for us all to be here tonight and playing around by the lake tomorrow,” said Kurt Busch, who will start 17th. “You just gotta feel for the fans, though. I’m sure a lot of them were counting on tomorrow for a travel day. The weather has put a kink in a lot of plans.”
The only other time the Coca-Cola 600 was postponed was the 1960 inaugural race, when it was pushed from its Memorial Day weekend date to June 19 because three consecutive March snowstorms slowed construction on the speedway.
The weather has been good to NASCAR since the season-opening Daytona 500 was shortened 48 laps because of rain. Since then, every Sprint Cup Series event has been rain-free.
The Truck Series had two postponements this season — at Martinsville and Kansas, where the races were held on days other than their scheduled start.
Elton Sawyer, competition director for Red Bull Racing, said the holdover isn’t a huge financial burden to race teams because the majority are based in the area and don’t have lodging costs. But teams will have to adjust to different track conditions: Sunday night’s race was to start in daylight and end in the dark, but today’s event will now be run during the hottest part of the day.
“This track changes dramatically,” Greg Biffle said. “The setup we want to use during the day are different than at night — so we have to set the car up for what we feel it’s gonna be like at night and suffer a little bit through the daytime and the heat. If it’s cooler outside, then it doesn’t matter as much, but if it’s hot and sunny, and then it starts cooling into the night, that’s a big transition for us.”
Random drug tests done. NASCAR randomly drug-tested 10 crew members from 10 teams during the rain delay, an apparent tweak to the first three months of in-season testing.
Before Sunday night, crew chiefs said NASCAR typically informed them when the garage opened if a team member had been selected to give a sample. The individual had four hours to report to testing. Drivers can be tested on any day of the race weekend.
