The NASCAR Coke Zero 400 was postponed due to drizzling rain at Daytona International Speedway Saturday night. The race was rescheduled for Sunday morning at 11 am Eastern Standard Time. You can find information about where to watch the Coke Zero 400 at the bottom of the article.
The drivers were introduced and ready to race, but the rest of the opening ceremonies were put on hold as the rain started to fall. NASCAR officials initially hoped they would be able to run the Coke Zero 400 late, but by 9 pm it was obvious that the rain was not going to let up soon enough to allow safe track conditions at Daytona International.
According to a report on NASCAR.com , the president of Daytona International Speedway, Joie Chitwood III, had this to say about the Coke Zero 400 postponement:
“We had a tough day with rain most of the day and from a radar perspective, it was popping up around us. We (didn’t think) it was going to get this bad, this long. We worked with NASCAR as much as we could in terms of the timing. You reach a point right now where as it continues to rain, if we use an hour and 45 minutes to dry this track, which is a really short amount of time using Air Titan and the jets, typically we’d be well over two hours to dry the track. You start thinking about an 11 p.m. start which means you finish the event anywhere from 2 a.m. to a little bit later. You think about public safety, getting people home, all those things… with the rain still around us and coming down, we would not be able to dry the track for a reasonable start time tonight.”
Rain delays have been the order of the day at Daytona International Speedway this year. The Daytona 500 also underwent a rain delay. Chitwood had this to say about it:
“We seem to have a little bit of bad luck right now. We had it in February; we have it now. But when I watched (a replay of) last year’s race, I thought ‘man, we really killed it last year.’ I think this is the right time. Typically with the afternoon thunderstorms, yes we have them but by 6-7 o’clock we’re good to go; maybe we’re delayed a little bit. It was really unusual for it to still be raining at 9 o’clock. If I have any more bad weather weekends, I might have to retire and hand the baton to the next person. But obviously it’s tough for our fans. Our fans are the ones who make the commitment, the investment to attend, traveling from far distances. So I really feel bad for delaying the event.”
You can still watch all of the NASCAR Coke Zero 400 streaming online live starting at 11 am Eastern Time by following the link at the bottom of this preview article .
