NASCAR Brickyard 400 gets new start time, XFINITY Series race moved to Monday
By Nick Tylwalk
Both NASCAR races at the Brickyard have been affected by rain, turning the weekend into a Sunday-Monday affair.
The first year for Indianapolis Motor Speedway serving as the cutoff race before the NASCAR Playoffs isn’t going to plan at all.
The race weekend at the Brickyard was moved from the summer partly because of the stifling heat that often accompanied it, but now the weather has thrown a different problem at NASCAR: rain. Both XFINITY Series practice sessions were rained out on Friday, and all on-track activity was likewise washed away on Saturdy.
As a result, the Lilly Diabetes 250 was postponed until Monday, and the Brickyard 400 (technically called the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard this year) was given a new, earlier start time of 1:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, Sept. 9.
Why not just make it a doubleheader on Sunday? Likely because there is still rain in the forecast for Indianapolis tomorrow, and judging by the hourly predictions at this time, the Brickyard 400 might not be able to drop the green flag early after all. But all told, the forecast looks much more promising for Sunday than what the track got these last 36 hours, and Monday also looks good.
The final regular season race for the Cup Series drivers will now carry an extra level of intrigue (for fans) and worries (for teams) since the field will be set by points and no one will have had any practice time before the race on Sunday. Expect NASCAR to announce an early competition caution so teams can adjust to a very green track, and for cars to make more adjustments overall.
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TV coverage of the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard will now start at 1:00 p.m. ET on NBCSN, with coverage of the Lilly Diabetes getting underway at 10:00 a.m. ET on NBCSN on Monday.