Geico 400 Chase Race in Chicagoland moved to Monday due to rain – NASCAR news
Spectators and drivers watched on as heavy downpour forced NASCAR officials to move the first race of the Geico 400 at Chicagoland from Sunday to Monday, September 19, 2011.
This is the first time that a Chase race has been postponed due to weather since the inception of the race format. The only such incident ever seen in the history of the competition was in 2007, when the race in Kansas was called off due to bad light after
three quarters of the race had been completed. The leader in that race, Greg Biffle, was declared the winner.
The race was initially scheduled to start at 1:00pm Eastern Time (ET). The teams and drivers came out on the track but were greeted by heavy rain and were soon returning to their garages as NASCAR officials tried to wait out the rain. The crew at Chicagoland
Speedway was hopeful that they could get the 1.5-mile track dry within two hours when the rain stopped and the race could be salvaged for the day.
The rain stopped at around 3:45pm ET and the crew at Chicagoland immediately got to work in drying out the track to make it safe for driving. NASCAR president Mike Helton was also at spot and he expected the race to start sometime during the evening as the
track had lights which meant that the race could be conducted on Sunday night.
However, the weather had other ideas and it started raining again after a small interval. This situation continued until 8:00pm ET in the evening when NASCAR officials finally gave up on the day and postponed the race to 11:00am ET on Monday morning. All
the fans were assured that their tickets would be honoured on Monday with Mike Helton appreciating the fans for tolerating the delay with them.
For the teams, it was a welcome reprieve from all the waiting and not too much concern was shown regarding the postponement of the race. Pole sitter Mark Kenneth was indifferent about the postponement but felt that the rain will have an impact on the track
which the teams will have to adjust in their plans.
“The track should have a ton of grip to start off,” Kenneth said. “We'll have a competition yellow on Lap 30 to get the tires off and take a look at it. And by then the track should be pretty well rubbered in and hopefully back to the conditions we practiced
in.”
Paul Menard will hope to cause less controversy this time around as he lines up along Kenneth in the front row with Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman following them in Row 2. They are followed by Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski, who finished second and first respectively
in Saturday’s Nationwide Series race.
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