Rain pushes NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race to Tuesday

HAMPTON, Ga. – With the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee bearing down on Georgia, NASCAR postponed its race at Atlanta Motor Speedway until 8 a.m. Pacific time Tuesday.

Officials hoped to get the race in as scheduled Sunday night, but outer bands of the massive storm brought light rain to the track late in the afternoon. Another burst of heavy showers ended any chance of beginning the race before midnight local time.

“This is one of those deals nobody wins from,” NASCAR president Mike Helton said. “It’s unfortunate it happens from time to time.”

Many of the pre-race festivities went on as scheduled, including driver introductions, the national anthem and a concert by Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Blowers were sent out shortly after the scheduled 7:30 p.m. Eastern start time, and NASCAR thought there was about a three-hour window to get in at least a shortened race. Then, with the track nearly dry, a short but heavy dose of rain moved in about 9:30 p.m.

It didn’t even show up on the radar.

“We were probably about 25 to 30 minutes from dropping the green flag,” said Ed Clark, president of Atlanta Motor Speedway. “We don’t know where it came from.”

At that point, it would have taken another three hours to dry the track again – even if the rain held off – and the race wouldn’t have started until after midnight.

“That’s just not fair to the fans,” Clark said.

NASCAR won’t even bother trying to get the race in today, considering a forecast that called for 4 to 5 inches of showers and potentially high winds in the afternoon as what was left from the still potent storm moved through the Atlanta area, having dumped more than a foot of rain on the Gulf Coast.

“We just thought it was best to step back, get reorganized and put on a great show Tuesday,” Clark said.

If the weather cooperates, that is. The Tuesday forecast called for a 70 percent chance of rain.