Cup race at Michigan postponed because of rain

BROOKLYN, Mich. (AP) — The break in NASCAR’s Cup Series schedule will have to wait at least an extra day.

Sunday’s race at Michigan International Speedway was postponed because of rain. It was rescheduled for Monday at 5 p.m. EDT, the second time in just over a month that a Cup race has been pushed past the weekend because of weather.

The race at Dover early last month was also pushed to Monday. That left a quick turnaround before the following Saturday’s race at Kansas. That’s not an issue this time. The Cup schedule has an open date next weekend before resuming June 23 at Sonoma. Of course, that means this delay eats into that time off.

Sunday’s race never began, and the postponement was announced after a delay of about 2½ hours from the scheduled start time.

There was a brief moment, about 90 minutes before the postponement, when a start seemed imminent. Detroit Lions coach Matt Patricia, the grand marshal, even gave the command for drivers to start their engines. Cars were on the track, but rain quickly forced them to come onto pit road.

It turned out the biggest entertainment of the day may have been Bubba Wallace and Corey LaJoie throwing and kicking a football around while everyone waited. Daniel Hemric was also involved.

“Is it a bad thing that my most famous moment in a firesuit is slinging a pigskin at a large group of fans?” LaJoie tweeted. “NAH.”

Last year’s June race at Michigan was shortened by rain, but it ended on Sunday as planned. Clint Bowyer won that one. Kevin Harvick won the August Cup race at MIS.

The last time a Cup race at Michigan was pushed past the weekend was in August of 2007, when Kurt Busch won.

The gap in the Cup schedule is the first since Easter weekend in April. Bowyer was asked Friday what his plans were.

“Lake time,” the Kansas native said. “Lake time is one of my most favorite things to do. Flooding is affecting everything. These people are getting beat up in the Midwest bad. … Hopefully they get some relief and some sunlight and hopefully we will be enjoying the lake. Everything is backed up. The lakes, the retention, literally everything is backed up big time and they need relief in a big way.”

Jimmie Johnson had plans to go to Greece.

“I’ve waited 43 years so what’s another few days,” he tweeted Sunday.

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