Sprint Cup, IRL races washed out

Associated Press

MARTINSVILLE, VA.

NASCAR’s bad weather luck at Martinsville Speedway reared its head again Sunday as rain forced the postponed of the Sprint Cup race until today at noon.

It is the second year in a row that rain pushed an event into the work week at the track in southwest Virginia. Last spring, the truck series event had to be run on Monday.

Rain also has washed out Sprint Cup qualifying for the past three spring races, putting points leader Kevin Harvick on the pole for the race. Harvick will be seeking a weekend sweep after dominating the truck race that was run in sunshine and ideal conditions Saturday.

Many drivers traded their ball caps for knit caps and wore heavy coats for driver introductions Sunday, which were conducted under heavy cloud cover and in a steady rain.

“It stinks for the fans and all the teams, but the fortunate thing is we’ve got an off week coming up, so it’s not like this is going to put everybody way behind,” said A.J. Allmendinger, who will start 21st.

IRL

ST. PETERSBURG, FLA.

Typically, it takes more than some strong bands of rain to keep Indy Racing League cars from getting on the track.

And Sunday was not typical, not by any measure.

With 6 inches of water pooling on some sections of the low-lying track, the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was postponed after a band of thunderstorms pounded the course for much of the afternoon. It was the first time an Indy Racing League event was pushed back by weather since April 2008, when Danica Patrick won in Japan.

“We’re one of the few series in the world that go racing in the rain,” driver Ryan Hunter-Reay said. “And even this was a bit much.”

Rain began falling at the 1.8-mile street circuit just before 1 p.m. Sunday, and a band of strong storms arrived quickly from there.

Parts of the infield flooded, the line between grass and asphalt was impossible to find in some other areas, and as Dario Franchitti and Graham Rahal took a ride around the track in a pace car, waves generated by the tires sloshed high against the track wall.

“Some of the areas in the grass and the areas in the infield around [turns] 13 and 14 are literally ponds right now,” said Brian Barnhart, the president of IRL’s competition and racing operations division.

Fans were told to evacuate shortly before 2 p.m., near the end of the IndyLights race, because storms and lightning were expected, and drivers were told that even tornadoes were possible in the region.