Rain ruins NASCAR’s Bristol dirt plans. Here’s the latest race schedule, lineups

The trucks made one muddy lap before NASCAR put the first heat race at Bristol on hold. Shortly after, more rain poured down on the track and the sport’s grand plans for the weekend changed.

NASCAR canceled Saturday’s heat races for its Cup and Truck Series, and rescheduled the main Truck race — originally scheduled for 8 p.m. Saturday — to Sunday at approximately 9 p.m. on FS2 following the Cup race.

Kevin Harvick said Friday that the experience of practicing on dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway for the first time was “as much fun in a race car” as he’d had in a long time. His tune flipped after it rained and teams raced a lap.

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

Harvick, driving the No. 17 Ford, and all other trucks in his heat pitted after NASCAR threw the caution for excessive mud on the truck windshields, which impaired driver visibility. Rain earlier in the day delayed the start of heat races by 45 minutes, with four 15-minute Cup heats originally set to immediately follow the Truck heats utilizing the same format.

NASCAR called on late model cars and heavy “packer cars” to help dry the track, but conditions still appeared slick when trucks finally attempted to race at 5:15 p.m. They ran just one green flag lap before the race went under the red flag. Then, heavy rain started falling again to cancel heat races completely.

Those heat races were intended to determine the starting order for both series’ main races, but NASCAR is now instead using a points formula to set the starting order for both races.

John Hunter Nemechek will start on the pole with Austin Hill in the front row for the Truck race. Kyle Larson will be on the pole with Denny Hamlin in the front row for the Cup race, but Larson will drop to the rear at the start of the race due to an earlier engine change.

The timing for Sunday’s Cup race remains unchanged, but rain is still in the forecast Sunday and could further impact plans. The Food City Dirt Race is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on FOX.

NASCAR Cup starting order for Bristol

DNQ: None, # denotes rookie, (i) ineligible for points in series

NASCAR Trucks starting order for Bristol

DNQ: Trevor Collins, Jessica Friesen, Ryan Newman, J.R. Heffner, # denotes rookie, (i) ineligible for points in series

This story was originally published March 27, 2021 at 6:43 PM with the headline "Rain ruins NASCAR’s Bristol dirt plans. Here’s the latest race schedule, lineups."

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