NASCAR race was already rained out once at Charlotte, with more bad weather in forecast
Editor’s note: Alex Andrejev is at the track providing live updates. You can follow them here.
NASCAR is not out of the woods yet. Rain is still in the forecast Thursday evening at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where the Cup Series is scheduled to run its second race at the track following Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600.
The Alsco Uniforms 500 race was originally scheduled for Wednesday evening, but was postponed by NASCAR due to heavy rain. The speedway, based in Concord, sits in the path of Tropical Storm Bertha and rain is expected to continue throughout the day Thursday.
An hour before the race’s 7 p.m. start time, the sun was shining over the track. Scattered rain had hit the speedway this afternoon, according to track officials, but stopped around 4 p.m.
Jet dryers remained parked on the track in Turns 1 and Turns 2 about 30 minutes before the green flag, but cars were on the grid and ready to race as planned.
NASCAR and Charlotte Motor Speedway have added more Air Titan machines for track drying efforts if necessary, but rain, if any, is not expected until early Friday morning, according to the National Weather Service. The speedway said yesterday that it would take roughly two and a half hours to dry the track under extremely saturated conditions.
NASCAR will do all it can to get the race in and prevent further modifications to its schedule. The sanctioning body also moved its next Xfinity Series race at Bristol, Tenn., originally scheduled for Saturday, to 7 p.m. Monday due to travel and setup challenges caused by the Cup race rain postponement.
Tonight’s Cup race could be called official by the halfway point, or Lap 104, if inclement weather prevents completion.
This story will be updated as the weather situation changes throughout the day.
This story was originally published May 28, 2020 at 12:35 PM.
