Inclement weather and NASCAR don’t work well with each other. This season we have seen several races either facing rain delays or being postponed to the next day. The sight of cars parked on pit road with rain covers on has been the case almost every other weekend. The sight repeated itself after rain soaked the FireKeepers Casino 400 in Michigan on Sunday, with the race now postponed to Monday.
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Interestingly, NASCAR cars have been equipped with all the necessary measures to race in the rain, but they somehow don’t. There are wet weather tires available to the teams, but so far it is only the non-oval tracks that have seen their utilization. Meanwhile, the weather statistics showcase just how much bad weather has affected this season for the sport.
NASCAR has faced a lot of rain delays this season
As per Jonathan Fjeld, “Inclement weather has affected 17 of NASCAR’s 25 weekends in 2023. The Clash, Las Vegas, Phoenix, COTA, Talladega, Kansas, Darlington & Sonoma weekends didn’t have bad weather. Two weekends is the longest NASCAR has gone with good weather (LV-Phoenix, Kansas-Darlington).”
The tweet also highlighted all of the races that had seen weather delays. Some of them were tracks such as – Fontana, Atlanta, Bristol Dirt, Martinsville, Dover, North Wilkesboro, Charlotte, Gateway, Nashville, and notably the Chicago Street course race among several others.
Not to mention the number of times the race went into overtime or the driver in the lead was just handed the win. Aside from rain, lighting is also another major problem that takes place in the summer months. NASCAR usually sets a clock of 30 minutes for every strike near an 8-mile radius of the track. During this time the race remains suspended and the cars sit on the pit road.
Bubba Wallace notices the increased amount of rain this season
While the rain stopped the race at Michigan and the drivers awaited NASCAR’s decision, 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace spoke with the media and mentioned how the rains had become more and more consistent this year.
Speaking about the rain delay, Wallace mentioned, “Unfortunately, we are at the hands of mother nature every weekend. More consistent than any of us in the field so just a bummer right now.”
It sure is a bummer, both for the drivers and the fans who come down to attend the races. But it is the tracks without lighting facilities that often have the worst luck, since the races usually are moved to Mondays or beyond, causing an inconvenience to the fans who drove all the way to enjoy the weekend.
