DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Both the Daytona 500 and the Xfinity race at Daytona have been postponed by rain to Monday.
The Daytona 500 will take place at 4 p.m. ET Monday on Fox. The Xfinity race will take place at 9 p.m. ET Monday on FS1.
So, if NASCAR can race in the rain at road courses and have vehicles on track in the rain at short tracks, why can’t it race in the rain at Daytona?
The Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, which uses Turns 3 and 4 and the frontstretch of Daytona International Speedway, races in the rain with sports cars.
The easy answer is that NASCAR Cup, Xfinity and Truck teams don’t have tread on their tires. The tires NASCAR teams use on ovals have no grip in wet conditions. Just look at what happened in the August 2022 Cup race at Daytona. As the Cup field went into Turn 1 unaware of rain, cars lost traction and crashed. More than a dozen cars were collected.
After that, NASCAR officials were more vigilant on calling cautions even when it was sprinkling during a race.
Also, Cup and Xfinity cars and NASCAR Trucks don’t have windshield wipers or defoggers on ovals this season. Another key issue is the spray from behind the vehicles when they run in the rain.
Think back to the 2021 Cup race at Circuit of the Americas. Heavy rains soaked the road course and created sprays of water that blinded competitors and caused wrecks.
Kevin Harvick slowed to avoid an accident and was slammed in the back by another car because of the poor visibility. An angry Harvick told NBC Sports that racing in the rain was “the most unsafe thing I’ve ever done in a race car by a lot.”
So those are among the reasons why NASCAR does not race in the rain on ovals, but NASCAR on NBC analyst Parker Kligerman, who races full-time in the Xfinity Series, looks at things in a different manner.
“I’m going to give you the wildest answer because people always tell me I’m crazy … I don’t get why we don’t (race in the rain) on ovals,” said Kligerman, who did a video segment four years ago on racing in the rain.
Kligerman notes Friday night’s wild Truck race at Daytona, run in dry conditions. That had 12 cautions for 52 laps in a 101-lap race.
“AJ (Allmendinger) and I were just joking about it,” Kligerman said. “What’s the difference between wrecking at 130 vs. 200 miles an hour in the wet? … I think there’s more ways in a day like (Saturday) that we could be running race cars. My whole saying is slow race cars are better than no race cars.
“I know safety-wise maybe there’s some things we would have to look at, but surely there’s a way, especially the Cup Series. It’s the best drivers and teams in the world. I can’t imagine they’re scared of a little bit of rain, right?”
Kligerman admits changes to the cars would have to be made. He says the cars would need to be more off the ground. Goodyear would have to create a wet weather tire that could be run in race conditions on ovals.
Kligerman also said improvements would have to be made with windshield wipers to help visibility. He notes one of the key adjustments would be to find a way to limit the spray behind cars.
Brad Keselowski raised issues with windshield wipers earlier this month, saying: “I think this sport kind of came to the realization that windshield wipers don’t really work on stock cars. The wet weather package had other elements that I thought were more effective that do apply, whether it be the defroster or defogger or whatever you want to call it, and the mud flaps.”
NASCAR has no plans to race on ovals in the rain. Series officials have a wet weather package for many ovals 1 mile or less in length, but series officials have stressed they won’t race in the rain at tracks such as Martinsville, Phoenix and Richmond. The purpose of putting cars on a wet track under caution conditions is to help dry it quicker so they can return to racing as soon as possible.
So, no racing in the rain on ovals for NASCAR. And no racing in the rain at Daytona.
