Ah dear, we will have to see what happens today. For those who are not NASCAR fans, this will seem to be utterly unimportant. Those who are fans are already anxiously checking weather reports if they’re awake (a little after 6:00 a.m. East Coast). This weekend, and especially today, is the time of the year when the most visitors flock to Homestead and the surrounding area. When I say “most”, that is most by a factor of  thousands. It is NASCAR Cup Weekend – the Superbowl of NASCAR. The difference is there are three separate racing series – truck and two different types of cars, so the champion in each series is determined and “crowned” on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday consecutively. Unlike football where rain and snow bring misery, but can be played in, NASCAR vehicles are not designed to run in the rain. That doesn’t include the fact there is very much the tailgating and party atmosphere at the Speedway like you have at all major sporting championships, so the trackside events of music, etc., are difficult to manage with rain.

The weather started turning yesterday, although the Saturday race was completed. The rain moved in last night and has been pretty heavy. Even though the race isn’t scheduled until 3:00, the track has to be dry. They actually have an impressively engineered track-drying mechanism, but it has to first stop raining and then it takes a certain number of hours for the drying to be effective. So, the duration of the current front is what is in question. Drier and cooler weather is supposed to be behind it and of course everyone involved is pleading with Mother Nature to scoot that this way quickly. They can, and have, moved the race to Monday and for us, it isn’t an issue of timing. We live within sound of the Speedway. Most people can make arrangements to stay over an extra day, but others won’t be able to. The problem with outdoor events is always this – Mother Nature is in charge and there just isn’t much you can do to in situations where you can’t “get under cover”.