NASCAR live updates: Heat races canceled for rain, Truck race rescheduled

NASCAR canceled Saturday’s heat races for rain. The Truck Series race has been moved to Sunday. Read more and find the Cup and Truck starting orders here.

NASCAR is racing on dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway, a half-mile (typically concrete) oval in Bristol, Tenn. Heat races to set the starting lineup for the Truck Series race, originally scheduled for 8 p.m. Saturday, were canceled and the race was postponed due to heavy rain at the track on Saturday evening.

The Pinty’s Truck Race on Dirt has been rescheduled for Sunday at approximately 9 p.m. on FS2. That race will follow the Cup Series’ Food City Dirt Race, which will maintain its originally scheduled time of 3:30 p.m. on FOX, weather permitting.

Rain returns to put racing on hold

6:03 p.m.: NASCAR announces that qualifying races have been canceled due to rain and that the Truck Series race will be postponed until Sunday evening.

6 p.m.: Rain is falling harder at the track as fans are dwindling in the stands. It will be at least a few hours after the rain stops to reach race-able track conditions based on earlier rain and track drying time.

5:37 p.m.: Light rain starts falling at the speedway. The late model cars attempting to help dry the track are called in and trucks are covered on the grid. One lap was completed in the first Truck Series heat before NASCAR threw a caution for too much mud on driver windshields, which impaired their vision. The weather radar shows a light rain patch moving through the area, so NASCAR will wait for the next dry patch to attempt racing tonight.

Heat 1 goes green ... barely

5:15 p.m.: After late model cars are brought out to continue packing and drying the track, the first heat goes green...for a single lap. NASCAR throws the caution after teams report too much mud on their truck windshields. “I can’t see anything,” says No. 26 driver Tyler Ankrum on his team radio. He started sixth, but the trucks at the front have hardly any mud on them. Trucks come to pit road for teams to clean the grills and windshields and the red flag comes out.

“That’s probably as uncomfortable as I’ve ever been in a race car,” Kevin Harvick says on FS1.

Late model cars are back out making laps.

Truck qualifying lineups

Heat 1

# denotes rookie, (i) ineligible for driver points in series

Heat 2

# denotes rookie, (i) ineligible for driver points in series

Heat 3

# denotes rookie, (i) ineligible for driver points in series

Heat 4

# denotes rookie, (i) ineligible for driver points in series

Truck qualifying lineup update

4:35 p.m.: NASCAR sends an update that the No. 3 truck driven by J.R. Heffner has been removed from its fourth round of qualifying. All trucks move up to new starting positions. That starting position will be the number used for passing points.\Truck qualifying lineup update

Track packing before heat racing

4:35 p.m.: NASCAR is still running its weighted “packer cars” on the track at the time the Truck series heats are expected to start. According to multiple reports, NASCAR is aiming to start Truck heat races between 5 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. based on the latest track and weather conditions. Rain has been stopped for over an hour. Each series, Truck and Cup, is set to run four, 15-lap heats Saturday.

NASCAR announces competition changes for Cup race

4 p.m.: NASCAR announced today that it will adjust the stage length, add two competition cautions and increase the tire allotment count for Sunday’s Cup Series race.

Stages were previously set to break on laps 75, 150 and 250, but NASCAR is increasing the length of the first two stages, and adding two competition cautions. The first stage will end on Lap 100 and the second stage will end on Lap 200. The race will still be 250 laps total. Competition cautions will be on Lap 50 and Lap 150. NASCAR announced that each team will also receive an additional set of tires.

NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition Scott Miller told reporters on Zoom Saturday that competition officials expected that they would need to make competition adjustments this weekend.

“So based on practice yesterday, a couple things: Higher than anticipated tire wear and then you all saw the dust,” Miller said. “Obviously it gives us more opportunity to prepare the track during these breaks and just kind of assures us that the story will be really about the racing.

“Trying to ask the tires to do more than they can isn’t in the best interest of anybody,” Miller said.

Rain holding off ahead of heat races

Thunderstorms near the speedway have stopped as of 3:30 p.m. and multiple “packer cars” (i.e., heavily weighted cars) have begun making laps to help dry the track. NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition Scott Miller told reporters on Zoom Saturday that competition officials are “optimistic” that if there is no more rain, the track should be efficiently dried and the Truck Series heat races will be able to start on time at 4:30 p.m. on FS1.

This story was originally published March 27, 2021 at 4:01 PM.

Alexandra Andrejev

The Charlotte Observer

NASCAR and Charlotte FC beat reporter Alex Andrejev joined The Observer in January 2020 following an internship at The Washington Post. She is a two-time APSE award winner for her NASCAR beat coverage and National Motorsports Press Association award winner. She is the host of McClatchy’s podcast “Payback” about women’s soccer. Support my work with a digital subscription