What happens to the race if it rains? To answer that question simply, the race is brought to a halt. For every lightning strike within an eight-mile radius, the race receives a halt of 30 minutes. However, ever wondered what happens to the tickets that the fans had booked weeks in advance to watch their favorite drivers race it out on NASCAR’s ovals? Does NASCAR provide a refund in case a race is canceled or postponed due to unfavorable weather?
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NASCAR has a Weather Protection Program that is effective for the regular grandstand tickets to every race across the three top-tier series. So how does it work? Say, a race gets canceled. The fans can exchange their tickets for a future NASCAR race of lesser or equal value. The ticket-holders have 60 days to contact the concerned officials to get their tickets exchanged.
But there are no direct cash refunds. If a race is postponed to later that day itself and the ticket-holder is unable to attend the race, ticket exchanges are ineligible. However, all ticket exchanges will be strictly decided based on the racetrack and the availability of seats. Moreover, there will be no exchange of tickets for parking, camping, pit, or fan zone passes.
What if Sunday’s Daytona 500 gets cancelled?
The recent weather forecast says that the chances of Sunday raining out have dropped from 70% to 50%. But even a drizzle could result in wet tracks and that, in turn, could lead to the cars crashing out during the race. So, even if the chances of a shower have reduced, NASCAR might have to stop and postpone the race to another day.
On that note, the Weather Protection Program will allow the ticket-holders to reschedule the races at a later date at the following racetracks:
- Darlington Raceway
- Daytona (either the Coke Zero Sugar 400 in August or the 2025 Daytona 500)
- Homestead-Miami Raceway
- Kansas Speedway
- Martinsville Speedway
- Michigan International Speedway
- Chicago Street Circuit
- Phoenix Raceway (except for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship)
- Richmond Raceway
- Talladega Superspeedway
- Watkins Glen International
There are a few changes to this year’s “Superbowl of NASCAR”. After what happened to Ryan Preece’s car last year, NASCAR has revamped the backstretch chicane. There used to be no pavement in the area before the entry at the Daytona backstretch chicane, which is used for road course races. NASCAR has repaved the entire area, known as the “Bus Stop” around the chicane and some of the grass that sits towards turn 3 after the Daytona 500 (last year).
According to the officials, grass provides lesser friction than asphalt and hence, the reduction of the grasswork could reduce the chances of another car getting tossed in the air. But just the crash between Ryan Blaney and William Byron on lap 47 of Duel 2 on Thursday perhaps can predict how unruly the main event might get.
