NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire postponed to Monday due to rain

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LOUDON, N.H. — The NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway was postponed from Sunday afternoon to Monday at noon ET as heavy rain pelted the facility.

Rain started to fall at about 8 a.m. ET at the track and the forecast was for rain throughout the day. With a flood warning already issued for the Loudon area, NASCAR and track officials made the decision mid-morning to scrap the day. The track does not have lights.

The FOX Weather forecast for Monday is for temperatures in the mid-80s and less than a 10 percent chance of rain, giving NASCAR confidence it can get the full 301 laps (318 miles) completed on the 1.058-mile oval. Christopher Bell is on the pole.

NASCAR brought its treaded rain tires to the event and the cars were equipped with windshield wipers and de-foggers, but with the track a flat and relatively short oval, the spray from the back of the cars limits a driver’s visibility when it is raining. While it has no plans to race in a steady rain, NASCAR would use the rain tires in damp conditions to try to start or resume racing sooner than it would take to completely dry the track.

The race was the third Cup event this year postponed because of rain as events at Dover and Charlotte also were pushed to Monday. It also was the third consecutive event impacted by rain as the two previous races — the Chicago street race and Atlanta — were shortened because of weather.

NASCAR had a test scheduled for Monday and Tuesday at New Hampshire to experiment with a new underwing that potentially could improve racing on short tracks. That test was moved to July 31 and Aug. 1 at Richmond Raceway, the Monday-Tuesday after the event there in two weeks.

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass, and sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass.

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