Daytona 500 Star Time Postponed Due to Rain
The 54th annual Daytona 500 has been postponed until Monday at noon. The race was set to begin Sunday just after 1 p.m., but due to rain, officials were forced to move the Florida event to today.
Officials, fans, and racers waited many hours Sunday to see if he track could be dried as an effort to avoid postponing the race to another day. But as puddles gathered in the in-field and fans got soaked, it soon became clear that the event would have to be moved. It is the first time in the history of the Daytona 500 that the race has ever been moved because of weather. The race start time has been postponed to later in the day due to rain four separate times throughout history, but it has never been pushed to another day entirely, until this year.
Driver reactions varied, as some worried about keeping up their energy and intensity while waiting around for the rain to lighten up. Driver Carl Edwards told MSNBC, "This is one of the toughest things for us drivers. When you put that off for another day for all of us, it's now who can really stay focused."
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Other drivers seemed more laid back about the delay. Driver AJ Allmedninger told Fox News, "Obviously you want to go race. We get to race when we race. I know it [stinks] for the people sitting out there because they've got to sit in the rain. But for us, we go in here and we have push-up contests, we eat a lot of food and we have a good time."
Driver Bobby Labonte was cool and calm about the delay. He told MSNBC that there isn't "a whole lot we can do about the weather, but you just try to plan as much as possible. When you get in the race car, then everything else goes away and you're just ready to go."
It was raining Monday morning in Daytona, and fans and racers alike were hoping the track will be dry enough by noon today.
