By Sarah Handy, Staff Writer
Rain. If there’s one four letter word in the dictionary that anyone who follows or is involved within NASCAR’s dislikes, it is that word.
Unfortunately, rain has plagued races on a number of occasions whether it be delays or calling a race official as soon as deemed possible.
For example, this past weekend’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 from Daytona International Speedway falls right into the rain shortened race category.
First, the race was initially slated for a 7:30 p.m. start on Saturday evening. Due to inclement weather, the event was postponed until Sunday afternoon at 1:00 p.m.
One thing about rain shortened races as well is that attendance suffers, which is already an issue at times in the sport.
Some people can stay an extra day, and some can’t. But hey, no one can control the weather.
It’s the beginning of July in Florida, and it’s Daytona – rain and lightning go hand-in-hand.
The problem is that once rain begins after the conclusion of Stage 2, the race can be deemed official by NASCAR. Clearly, this is nothing new if you follow the sport on a regular basis. This is exactly what happened on Sunday afternoon at the famed superspeedway.
The race did get underway as rescheduled, but was red-flagged due to lightning within an 8-mile radius of the 2.5-mile track with 127 of 160 laps completed.
After a two-hour delay, rain came too, and the track was officially “lost” (a racing term for too wet to race on). We didn’t want rookie fans to think officials were out trying to locate the track, like some who think officials can control the weather.
NASCAR officials did what they had to do for the safety of the drivers, teams, and fans in attendance and called the race official. But no matter what decision they made, someone was going to be unhappy.
Justin Haley, driving the No. 77 for Spire Motorsports, was declared the winner in just his third MENCS start – and was probably the happiest person at the track.
First time winner, and for a small team at that.
Yay! Right? Not exactly.
As previously written, it wasn’t a good enough call for many and in typical fan fashion, the aggrieved took to social media to display their outpouring of disgust.
I understand, fans want to see a race played out until the end. We all do, but that isn’t always possible. And say what you want to about Spire Motorsports, not that we have a beef with Spire but even if I did, it doesn’t take away from Haley’s victory. As for Spire, they jumped on an opprotunity and it paid off big, so far.
However, the amount of complete disgust I felt after witnessing comments about Haley and his team on social media was nauseating.
Numerous so-called fans had no respect, or couldn’t just be happy for the 20-year-old racer and his team for making the right call at the right time and winning at NASCAR’s premier level.
In case you missed it: This isn’t the first time a driver has won a rain shortened event. Think Dale Earnhardt Jr., Joey Logano, Chris Buescher and David Reutimann to name a few. Oh yeah, I’m pretty sure the record books list Aric Almirola getting a rain-shortened Victory at Daytona in July 2014.
If fans want to have a say in rain-shortened races, they need to hit up Mother Nature on their cell phone. Let me know how it works out. There may be an app for that.