Rain pushes Xfinity race to today, after Cup event

NASCAR

Xfinity Series driver Austin Dillon, left, stands next to his race car after returning to the pits and climbing out after just two pace laps due to rain at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana on Saturday. The race will be run today following the Cup Series Pala 400. WILL LESTER — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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By Dennis Pope

Correspondent

FONTANA >> There was an attempt made.

NASCAR did its best to dry the track and tried to start the Xfinity Series Production Alliance Group 300, but relentless weather prevented racing Saturday at Auto Club Speedway.

“It was really wet,” Xfinity Series rookie Chandler Smith said.

Today’s schedule has been adjusted and racing will begin with the NASCAR Cup Series Pala Casino 400 (12:30 p.m. on Ch. 11) followed by the Xfinity Series Production Alliance Group 300 (5 p.m. on FS2).

“With the rain who knows what the track will do, but we know that it can change a lot,” Xfinity Series pole sitter John Hunter Nemechek said.

Engines were fired and one pace lap was completed Saturday, but the red flag was raised before the race could start, and teams and crews waited on pit row nearly an hour before an official announcement was made.

“When we went out there for pace laps there was a lot of weepers, so it’s going to be a little sketchy,” Nemechek said.

Weepers, or seams in the track that seep water during and following moderate-to-heavy rain, were on the minds of a number of drivers Saturday.

“I’m not worried about the cold so much as the weepers,” 2022 Cup Series champion Joey Logano said. “This surface has a lot of cracks and I assume it’ll be really tough to dry this thing. We’re definitely going to race with wet spots on the track but at what point do we go ahead and say, ‘Let’s go!’?”

The last time weather was a factor during race weekend in Fontana was 2012, when Tony Stewart won a rain-shortened 129-lap Cup event.

“We always talk about the big seams and the water that comes from those, so we’ll just have to play it by ear and see how it goes,” Ryan Blaney said.

Forecasts suggest a 25 percent chance of rain but cold, damp conditions will prevent the track from drying sufficiently.

“We don’t want to go if the weepers are too bad,” Blaney said. “Obviously we don’t want to tear anything up, but we’ll race with some weepers.

“There’s a give-and-take there because some will be there no matter what, but you also don’t want to be driving through a waterfall,” Blaney said.