Daytona in summer is always a tricky proposition. You can have blazing heat and humidity, to the point where you get dizzy if you’re in the sun too long. The other opinion is a bunch of rain with the potential for lightning. Unfortunately, that is what we had last weekend.
The original plan was for the NASCAR Cup Series to race Saturday night on NBC. It was going to be a great time. The rain simply couldn’t stay away long enough to do it, so they had to come back Sunday.
As you all know, the pivotal moment of the race Sunday was when the skies opened on lap 138 with the field in a fierce pack.
The situation seemed to occur so quickly that no one could figure out that it was the rain to blame. It was obvious that it was close by. Shots before the restart showed the rain coming down maybe a mile or two west of the track, east of Interstate 95. The shadows were descending to a degree that it probably should have been a little more obvious what was happening. It was almost like nobody wanted to admit that rain was the cause since there have been a couple of instances where rain has caused a series of wrecks in the past. Examples of this include the start of The Winston in 2001 and the end of the TranSouth 400 at Darlington in 1999.
Weather-wise, the rain was never far away during the race. Until the final stage, it rarely merited a mention, though. Then, you started hearing about the potential for precipitation. I don’t know if that was the right approach to take due to the fact that the weather can change in a hurry in Volusia County.
Lightning will always be an issue in Central Florida during the summer as well. Thundershowers were hanging out over the Pine Barrens west of the track most of the day, which I find to be a regular occurrence. In addition, a rain shower was hanging out at the beach, enjoying some grub at the Joe’s Crab Shack on the Daytona Beach Pier.
Also, there was a shower early in the race that put some precipitation in turns 1 and 2. This could be seen on Justin Haley’s roof cam. This was sort of written off by the booth as “gee, that happened.” Given Daytona’s track record, I think I spent way more time looking at the radar than the broadcast did.
Once the rains started in earnest, they were accompanied by the dreaded lightning. This meant that there was another stop down. NBC Sports set themselves up in a room in the media center normally used for drivers…
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