NASCAR is back. Following a 70 day hiatus due to the coronavirus lockdown, NASCAR was able to return to action this past Sunday at the Darlington Raceway. Now, with two more races scheduled over the next couple of days, how likely is it that we will get them in?
The NASCAR Xfinity Series will race for the first time since March 7 for Tuesday night’s Toyota 200 (6 p.m. ET/FS1/MRN). That race was moved up two hours due to a potential weather impact. The NASCAR Cup Series resumes to action on Wednesday night for the Toyota 500 (7:30 p.m. ET/FS1/MRN).
More: Main Takeaways From Sunday’s Cup Series Race At Darlington
More: NASCAR Pleased With How Smooth Sunday’s Return At Darlington Went
Two scheduled weeknight races to keep this momentum going. Unfortunately though, a lot of rain is looking like it’s going to descend on the South Carolina area. Tropical Storm Arthur is wrecking havoc on the eastern seaboard and affecting the outer banks in North Carolina as well as South Carolina’s coast. While that storm is scheduled to move out of the area here soon, a low pressure system is going to be sticking around after.
As a result, Tuesday and Wednesday look wet for the area. There’s a 90-percent chance of rain right now on the nights of both races.
“Yeah, I think still too early,” said Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s executive vice president and chief racing development officer during a post race zoom meeting with the media on Sunday. “We’ve seen what you’ve seen. We’re going to try our best to get both of those in.”
O’Donnell, noted that they have an extra day or two on the back of Darlington’s schedule this week to try and get these races in but it would all depend on the TV windows to be sure slots are available to be made.
“We’ve got some built-in time,” O’Donnell continued. “Hopefully we’re able to get both races there.”
NASCAR doesn’t have a race after Darlington until Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Even for that race, there’s no practice and they’re just qualifying prior to the start time. So, in theory, they have Thursday and Friday if needed.
