Wet weather has delayed the Daytona 500.
NASCAR’s season opening event was scheduled for Sunday afternoon, but shortly before the race was supposed to start officials decided to wait it out due to the increasingly heavy rain showers.
“It’s one of those days here in Daytona where it pops up and falls off and pops up and falls off,” NASCAR president Mike Helton said. “But as the day progresses, we think the chances of the pop-ups diminish quite a bit. Hopefully this will be the last big cell we see and things will start falling apart and we can get the track dry and go on and get finished and run the Daytona 500 today.”
NASCAR said that Fox is committed to broadcast the event, even if it ends up in the same time slot as the NBA All-Star game and the Academy Awards.
The process of drying the track takes about two and a half hour, and can’t be started until the rain stops. The national anthem and driver introductions were done prior to the postponement, so once the track is dry the race can immediately begin.
The end may not come swiftly. There is an 80 percent chance of rain for the rest of the afternoon, and a 70 percent chance for nighttime showers, according to the National Weather Service. The rain is set to continue Monday.
No Daytona 500 has ever ben postponed in its 53-year history. The race has been shortened in length due to inclement weather four times, the most recent being in 2009.
With Associated Press