The national anthem and invocation were finished. Helmets were strapped on, and safety belts were fastened. The large red and gold grandstand along the frontstretch at Watkins Glen International was crowded with spectators. Over the radio, NASCAR officials passed an alert to drivers: one minute until the command to start engines.
Sunday’s Cup event on the 2.45-mile road course was seconds from beginning—until severe weather intervened.
Thunderstorms passing through the Finger Lakes region forced NASCAR to abandon the start of the Heluva Good! at The Glen, forced track officials to order the evacuation of the grandstands, and ultimately forced the postponement of the race. After waiting out two hours of rainfall and running out of daylight, NASCAR officials postponed the Watkins Glen event until noon Monday. NASCAR
Last week’s race at Pocono also was moved to Monday because of rain, and with just five races before the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, another delay wasn’t welcome.
“That’s got to be tough,” Canadian road racer Ron Fellows said. “They’ve spent a lot of time at the racetrack watching it rain. You might get a bit stir-crazy.”
“I can’t imagine what it would be like in a Cup race,” Gordon said. “I thoroughly enjoyed watching it rain up there. That was highly entertaining, but I was very glad I wasn’t inside the car.”
Carl Edwards’ team was one of several that didn’t install a windshield wiper during an extended early caution when NASCAR went to the rain tires. Without a wiper, Edwards stuck a squeegee out the driver-side window to clean his windshield during later caution periods. Fellows won the race.
“I think it would actually be fun to drive the cars in the rain and you can feel the grip level,” Gordon said. “But as you saw, the windshield wipers don’t work, the defog doesn’t work. When a guy’s got to use a squeegee inside the car, there’s something wrong. Those cars should not be out there in the rain.” The Associated Press
| 
|