The weatherman lived up to his forecast for Sunday’s rain. It rained a bit Saturday night and showered in dawn’s early light at Phoenix International Raceway. It poured briefly on the road into the track, stalled and then started in pouring again. The rain comes and goes in intensity. The teams have taken all the necessary steps they can to keep dry their cars and equipment. No break in the weather is yet foreseeable.
This is a problem for NASCAR as it does not race in the rain. It doesn’t usually put out the parades of jet dryers and every available track and emergency vehicles to dry the track until it feels the rain has stopped.
In addition to the schedule delay, there are concerns/problems of having lost the two days of rubber laid down on the newly resurfaced one-mile speedway.
Phoenix has lights, if necessary to run a later race into the sunset.
Sunday’s schedule calls for Driver Intros at 12:30pm local/Mountain time, and race start at 1pm – 312 laps for the 24th Annual Kobalt Tools NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.
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The NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series run Goodyear radial tires, while the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West run Goodyear bias ply tires. When asked after the NNS race what difference the two different compounds would make for Sunday’s Cup race, BRAD KESELOWSKI said he thought it would be beneficial. CARL EDWARDS, at the same post race conference, said he thought “There would be a little rain Saturday night and then we’d be good to go.”
Edwards was asked about the grooves and passing. “There may be two narrow grooves, but passing will still be tough. If I wasn’t running the No.60 NNS Ford, I would have been out there looking for a ride as I think it would help, with a new track, new surface and just psychologically.
ADRIAN FERNANDES of Mexico City, Scottsdale and Switzerland is the Pace Car driver Sunday for the start of the Cup race. Fernandes is a well-known international driver, first in open wheel racing with CART and Champ Car, and now racing Aston Martin sports cars in ALMS and the International Le Mans Series. He has been sponsored by Lowes for years, which gives Lowes/Kobalt Tools some say in such choices.
Stay tuned for weather updates.