Bob Pockrass
FOX NASCAR Insider
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Regular rain pressured NASCAR to postpone the Xfinity Sequence season opener from Saturday evening to Monday at Daytona Worldwide Speedway.
The 120-lap, 300-mile race will start at 11 a.m. ET on Monday on FS1.
The Daytona 500, NASCAR’s largest occasion, remains to be scheduled for Sunday afternoon on FOX with a 2:30 p.m. ET listed begin and a 3:11 p.m. projected inexperienced flag. Heavy rain threatens the race Sunday, with FOX Climate forecasting a 70-90 p.c probability of rain all through the day and into the night.
NASCAR would want a window of greater than 5 hours with no rain to be able to dry the observe and full the occasion. With temperatures within the 50s, observe drying may take longer than the everyday 90-120 minutes. The race takes over three hours to run to the end, though if the race is at or previous the midway level (100 laps, 250 miles), the race can be official if rains preclude NASCAR from ending the occasion to its scheduled completion.
[Related: Ranking 2024 Daytona 500 field 1-40: From Denny Hamlin to Anthony Alfredo]
With the rescheduled time for Xfinity on Monday, that signifies the Daytona 500, if postponed, would run Monday following the Xfinity race with a begin time nonetheless to be finalized.
NASCAR has 30 custom-made autos on-site to dry the observe with a mixture of custom-built high-pressure air techniques that blow standing water off the observe after which dryers and blowers that use heated jet gas to complete the drying course of.
Group Penske’s Joey Logano is on the pole for the Daytona 500. Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love is on the pole for the Xfinity Sequence race.
NASCAR additionally canceled the ultimate observe Saturday for the Daytona 500 due to rain, however sometimes solely a handful of groups exit in that session as they need to be sure nothing occurs to their major automotive for the Daytona 500. With the session canceled, NASCAR has already carried out its Daytona 500 prerace technical inspection. There have been no points.
The ARCA race, initially scheduled for Saturday afternoon, was beforehand moved to late Friday evening.
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports activities. He has spent many years overlaying motorsports, together with over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting Information, NASCAR Scene journal and The (Daytona Seaside) Information-Journal. Comply with him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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