Nascar Sprint Cup Daytona 500 Monday Feb. 27 on FoX 7PM ET (Rain Delayed)

NASCAR.com ^ | 2/23/12

[NormsRevenge]

The field is set.

Tony Stewart won the first Duel under caution and Matt Kenseth took the checkered in a caution-free second event to set the lineup for Sunday's Daytona 500.

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Who will ride a lucky airstream to Victory Lane on Sunday?

Will the field get Smoke'd again?

[freebird5850]

4PM PST works for me, just in time for me to get home, changed into house clothes and prepare some “refreshment”.

[alancarp]

Yeah, I would bet that the haulers going to Phoenix are already on the road this morning in that direction - at least for the well-funded teams. In most cases, there won’t be an issue if Daytona has to wait until Tuesday.

The fans, though? That could be another story... not much they can do about it if rain continues... and there’s still a lot out in the Gulf of Mexico that’ll have to cross the entire peninsula before we’re done... today’s still a longshot.

[John W]

Here was Jim Cantore an hour ago on Twitter:

I will start today like I did Sunday. There are MANY opportunities for rain today at the #Daytona500: Drying by sunset.

[alancarp]

Here is the current radar. Everything seems to be moving directly west-to-east. The speedway is located roughly under the center of the letter "n" in "Daytona".

There seems to be a dry-ish patch over Ocala right now. That will take about 2 hours to reach the speedway. Track drying could begin then. After that point, we just have to hope that the batch in the Gulf just north of Homosassa Springs (that's a city, not a slur) tracks slightly to the north. If so, we could get a little lucky and get this in tonight.

[nascarnation]

I remember the 97 Indy 500.
Day 1 was a washout.
Day 2 ran 15 laps and then done for the day because of more rain.
Day 3 (Tuesday) you could pretty much sit in any seat you wanted, the crowd was about 40% of normal.

[NormsRevenge]

Delayed again until tonight..

Night race ahead.

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Under the lights
http://www.nascar.com/news/120227/daytona-500-rain-monday-night-start/index.html

The Daytona 500 is going prime time. With storms forecast all afternoon, NASCAR will wave the green flag on the Daytona 500 at 7:02 p.m. ET, a first for the Great American Race.

Too bad they couldn’t have run a Saturday Night opener and all 3 circuits would be headed to the next stop.. but that is Nascar.

[NormsRevenge]

snip from

Rain leads to first postponement of Daytona 500

http://www.nascar.com/news/120226/daytona-500-rain-delay/index.html#nscrCommentsAnchor

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The postponement comes in the first year after the Daytona 500 was shifted back a week on the schedule, to tighten up the early portion of the Sprint Cup slate and avoid potential conflicts with other major sporting events on NASCAR’s biggest day.

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(climate) Change strikes again.. that and rain.

[LasVegasMac]

Yea, My coffee low level light was glaring red when I heard that. 7:00pm is better than not.

The hauler boys are going to hittin warp speed....

[nascarnation]

If I’m a tv advertiser, I’m thinking Monday Night Nascar ain’t all bad.

[hoagy62]

Of course, then it goes up against WWE Monday Night RAW.

“NASCAR...’rasslin....NASCAR....’rasslin...Good Lord what do I do???”

(tongue planted firmly in cheek)

[SouthTexas]

Oh well. Had planned to take the afternoon off to watch, now I’ll have to work. :(

[alancarp]

Well... this radar update looks a lot more promising... appears that a bunch of the rain has dissipated. Hopefully the dryers are already running!

[WSGilcrest]

Looks like it’s clearing up down there. (Goes out on the patio and checks charcols)

[alancarp]

...but not clear on the roads... “10 mile backup” now on I-4 heading to Daytona from the Orlando area (per “Tradin’ Paint” radio show on XM/Nascar channel 90).

[freebird5850]

I may have mentioned this earlier but with all this rain there will be no rubber laid down... a “green” track.

[alancarp]

Deinitely so, although it will also be much cooler... maybe 20 degrees less than expected.

[alancarp]

Weather update on XM via a local (Orlando) forecaster: “good news”... overcast skies, only bad thing is if clouds break up and start heating things up — leading to instability and thundershowers. Not expected right now. Occasional spotty light rain is possible, but not expected to be enough to “lose the track”.

[Slambat]

Hay al baby. Check this out.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2852011/posts?page=9

It seems you missed the real DU dummy.

[NormsRevenge]

What a year lies ahead for Nascar.. and Danica.

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Need to remind folks here to keep it to a congenial gathering and don’t smash up all the new lawn&pool furniture we put in this year first thread. ;-]

Slambat, I see you’re pretty new here at FR.. and a feisty one too! Welcome aboard!

We get along best when we bump into each other least. We have a ping list.. yur not on it.. but ya could be ;-]

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—For everybody —

Will Danica finish the 500?

Y/N ?

[alancarp]

Will Danica finish? Oy... it would be an easier question if I thought it was entirely up to her. And of course, I have to ask if “finish” means “completes 200 laps” or simply means “is running at the checkers”, since the latter was the case on Saturday.

That said, I would expect that with a cooler track tonight, there may be better racing... and along with that, bolder drivers as we go along with a grippier track. So my vote is that she gets caught up in a “big one”, and cannot continue after that.

Oh, and Norm? I really like the new brick grill enclosure you installed. Nicely done.