Not to sound cliche, but every race is critical in the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series playoffs.
Teams get momentum, and when your car is running well, you want to capitalize. Here's the rub for NASCAR's Bank of America 500 this weekend in Charlotte - Mother Nature may play the spoiler.
ESPN's Bob Pockrass tweeted out that NASCAR is going to have to make some decisions soon.
Will be interesting if forecast shows coming in Sun afternoon if NASCAR moves up start time by an hour. Policy is to give fans 24-hr notice https://t.co/vdDvQNub4Z
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) October 4, 2017
Pockrass was responding to Alan Reppert, a meteorologist for Accu-Weather, who noted:
Rain will move into @CLTMotorSpdwy Sunday from a tropical system that moves into western FL. Concern for any racing! @bobpockrass
— Alan Reppert (@AReppert) October 4, 2017
Here's the forecast:
Yep, 80 percent chance of thunderstorms.
Not sure if an hour will really help, though. A quick check of The Weather Channel's forecast for the Charlotte area shows rain and thunderstorms moving in Saturday evening and not letting up till after Monday, meaning the Xfinity race on Saturday might get in, but there's a chance Sunday's race won't even get underway.
Typically, a Sunday race that is postponed without ever getting started will be run on the following Monday. If that can't happen, NASCAR has 2 options they might consider - push it back a week and slide the remainder of the schedule, or put the Charlotte race at the end of the season. Either choice is not ideal, but they don't take chances with wet tracks. To be clear, NASCAR has not yet said anything about weather possibly impacting the race or what they might do.
Let's hope the forecasters are wrong with this one.