DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Report by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman — Team Lowes Racing photo —
Light rain showers have delayed the start of Sunday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coke Zero 400 at the Daytona International Speedway.
Weather moved into the Daytona Beach area around 6 p.m. Eastern (local) time, alternating between light and heavier showers and forcing fans to take cover in the meantime. NASCAR and track officials held the traditional pre-race ceremonies just after 7:30 p.m. local time, but with rain still falling, the planned 8:08 p.m. green flag time was put on hold.
20 NASCAR Air Titans and nine jet dryers are on hand at DIS and ready to dry the 2.5-mile track once the rain completely moves away from the race track.
When the race is able to begin, two-time Daytona 500 champion and 2001 July race winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. will lead the field to the green flag after qualifying was rained out on Saturday afternoon, setting the grid by the speeds from the opening practice session on Friday. Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon will start alongside Earnhardt on the front row.
Six-time Daytona winner and four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon will start 23rd in his final event as a full-time driver at the ‘World Center of Racing.’
While the delay has been tedious, drivers — including Michael Waltrip Racing’s Clint Bowyer — have been more focused on how they are going to attack the 160-lap, 400-mile event once the track is in race-able condition than worrying about the wet weather slowdown.
“There’s something about this place — every time you come here, the facility — you just get taken in by it,” Bowyer said, addressing the media on Sunday afternoon. “Watching the XFINITY race last night, [I personally] learned a lot of things just watching those guys and kind of what you think is going to play out with our program when you get the Cup boys out there on the race track.”
“[We] learned a little bit of what not to do, too. That’s the thing about this weekend and coming to these restrictor plate tracks, you’re constantly learning and you’re being a student of what you see and you don’t really have a lot of practice time anymore, at least you shouldn’t.”
“It’s the same plan everybody else has, which is to roll their happy butt into Victory Lane with a big smile on their face.”
Keep tuned to @RaceChaserNews on Twitter, as Race Chaser Online will have continued updates as the weather hopefully moves through. When the race does go green, NBCSN, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90 will have live coverage of the event.
