Coca-Cola 600 Will Try Again Monday

CONCORD, N.C. -- For 49 years, the crown jewel of Lowe's Motor Speedway had never failed to run a lap on the day it was scheduled.

A heavy rain shower, though, thoroughly doused the 1.5-mile speedway seemingly just minutes before NASCAR was to give the Coca-Cola 600 field the command to fire engines, leaving the 50th edition to set a disappointing new benchmark for the nearly sold-out crowd.

Now, the race will fire off on Monday afternoon, with NASCAR saying the green flag will fall at 12:01 pm/ET and television coverage provided by FOX.

After the first round of rain hit the track around the original start time, the skies appeared to hold enough for track drying efforts to get a thorough start. But another round of rain hit the track and a persistant drizzle pulled the jet dryers off the track.

Finally, with NASCAR realizing that track drying efforts would likely be futile with more showers in the area, they called the race for the evening just before 8:30 pm/ET. The skies had cleared at that point, but at 9:30pm/ET more rain started to fall at the track.

The rescheduled start time on Monday is certainly quite puzzling. Rain is certainly a possibility Monday, as it is for the rest of the week in the metropolitan Charlotte area, and waiting until noon to start the longest race on the NASCAR schedule is only playing in to the hands of more weather impacting the race.

The 600 easily could have been started at 10am/ET Monday, but instead is leaving two hours to chance not getting the race in at all.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

5-25-2009 @ 5:23AM

obamaizadope said...

They gotta stop with these driver interviews. And the dopey leftists say waterboarding is torture?!

5-25-2009 @ 11:40AM

bobharlibob said...

The leftists are indeed a bunch of DUMBOS!!!! I think we need to do an abortion from the President on down the line. DC needs o be cleaned up. Waterboarding worked and got answers I too question why NASCAR waited till NOON to start the race with all the rain in the forecast. I was upset with the final 30 laps of the NATIONWIDE race being called due to rain. It is a rip off for the fans in the stands and the fans at home.

5-25-2009 @ 6:49AM

hafttwo said...

thank you osama i could not have said it better

5-25-2009 @ 9:31AM

Cattani said...

I'm glad. Indy 500 yesterday, CC 600 today. The family was giving me crap for wanting to watch two races in one day.

5-25-2009 @ 11:16AM

Beverly Wing said...

I am so happy Helio won.

5-25-2009 @ 11:41AM

I too was happy Helio won the Indy 500!!!

5-25-2009 @ 2:45PM

lweb9721 said...

Man as a die hard Dale Jr fan I am fastly becoming a Tony Stewart fan. Either Hendricks gives Jr a REAL crew chief or Tony here I come. IF Jr can't do better with another crew chief then get rid of him.

5-26-2009 @ 10:11PM

mcneas1005 said...

Jr. has never been a great driver. He has been living on his father's success, not his own. Kyle Busch can drive circles around Jr. and usually does every week. Hendrix traded the golden goose for a duck when he let Kyle go to hire Jr. Now he is trying to blame Tony Jr. for his failures. Before that it was Teresa's fault. He is either on drugs or he is a drunk. Go Kyle and Tony.

5-25-2009 @ 2:47PM

Just one more thought. Could all of you political BOZO's keep the politics out? PLEEEEEEEEEEZE

5-25-2009 @ 3:29PM

Hubert said...

Well I see the old redneck are out todays talking about Obama. I bet they didn't vote in the last election.
Rain? NASCAR should take a hint from F1 racing. RAIN TIRES! F1 races rain or shine. Of course they also turn left and right, brake, speed up, change gears, slow down, speed up go right, then left. etc. It's not the pedal to the metal and turn left, turn left, turn left, turn left for 500 boring miles.

5-26-2009 @ 10:17PM

The latest is the NAACP wants the Confederate flag removed from the track in South Florida. They are threatening a boycott. If Nascar caves in to this, all Nascar fans should boycott Nascar and let them depend on the NAACP to fill the stands. Let's see how much courage the management of Nascar has when they deal with these black racists.

5-26-2009 @ 10:40PM

nzcr14 said...

POSTERS OSAMADOPED AND HALFBAKED I WONDER what WATERBOARDING those scumbag terrorists has anything to do with drivers interviews.???.
Iam already surprised that you two have not yet blamed the japs for shortening the race.
DID THEY??/

5-26-2009 @ 11:18PM

TO SHUBERT POST #10;
Agrre with you about the constant left turning of nazcar cars but nascar cars do brake ,slow down and speed up too.And have you ever looked inside a NAZCAR VEHICLE IN EXPO at any track or malls? or even at wal mart i seen them? those cars do have a GEAR STICK TO CHANGE THE GEARS AND A PEDAL CLOTHCES
on the floor right next to the brake pedal.SO, it's not just floring the gas pedal like we would do on the local roadways and highways.
ALSO; RAIN TIRES? IF RAIN TIRES WOULD STOP A CAR AT 180 TO 200 MP/H IDROPLANING ON A SHEET OF WATER THE RAINTIRES had already been on NAZCAR VEHICLES.
FORMULA1 IS AN UNSAFE NEGLIGENT SANCTIONING BODY!!.
wOULD YOU WANT YOUR DRIVER TO SLIDE TO HELL AT THOSE HIGH SPEED and not able to control the car for a mile?
HAVE YOU EVER SLID ON THE BS RAIN TIRES AT 60-65 MP/HR? HOW EASY WAS TO CONTROL YOUR BOAT BEFORE SMASHING IN TO SOMETHING? HAVE YOU EVER SLID ON A
SNOWEY ROAD with ice underneath the snow in some 100
yards lenght spots?
WHEN SOMEBODY WILL EVENTUALLY DIE IN F1 RAIN RACING
ONLY THAN YOU MAY HEAR ABOUT THE END OF F1 racing in the rainey days.They been lucky so far and lets hope it stays that way and besides i do not follow F1 MUCH ANYMORE but i hear that in rainey days the
rule is to slow the speeds to 50% or more.
WHAT KIND OF RACING IS THAT? WHERE IS THE RACING ANYMORE? It's more like CIRCLING AROUND TO CONTEMPLATE THE PAYING FANS.
does not work for me...