What are NASCAR’s rain delay rules?

What are NASCAR’s rain delay rules?

When it comes to bad weather, NASCAR doesn’t mess around with it. Any time there is the slightest precipitation on the track, NASCAR throws out the red flag and brings the drivers in immediately for their own safety.

Unlike any other sport, NASCAR is far too dangerous to try and race in inclement weather. The cars drive at too high of speeds and can gain no traction on a wet surface.

In the event of rain, a red flag is throw out and the drivers are brought in, as previously mentioned. Should the rain occur before the race, the drivers will stay put until it clears up.

Waiting for the rain to clear up all depends on the weather patterns and there are meteorologists at the track that follow the weather and whether or not their is a window for the race to get underway. Should a race occur in the day and have rain bring it to a halt, there are a few options for NASCAR.

They can either wait out the storm and run it at night, declare a winner if the race is 50 percent complete or if it hasn’t ran the necessary amount of laps or began, they can move it to the next day. There are certain tracks that don’t have the lighting capacity to run a night race and that can lead to races being moved to Monday, if it’s a Sunday race.

Should the rain last for days and not show any signs of letting up, the race can be rescheduled to the week after the final race of the season. That has only happened once in NASCAR history. After the September 11th attacks, NASCAR postponed their race at New Hampshire until the week after Homestead.

The likely option is that the weather clears up and everyone resumes racing, but if there’s no sign of the rain letting up, the race will be called if enough laps are completed, ran at night or moved to Monday, if the race is on Sunday.