Rained-out NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying would send home one team
MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Forty-four cars are at Martinsville Speedway in an attempt to qualify for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Tums Fast Relief 500 today, with Josh Wise being the driver that would go home if qualifying was rained out.
Derrike Cope has withdrawn the Cope/Keller Racing entry because of the weather forecast. Cope will replace Mike Wallace in the Gunselman Motorsports car, according to NASCAR.
If he was driving his own car, Cope would have missed the race if qualifying is rained out. Qualifying is scheduled for 3:10 p.m. EDT, with Camping World Truck Series qualifying scheduled after that.
The National Weather Service forecast has gotten better overnight, with the chance of rain dropping from 50 percent to 30 percent this afternoon. Sundown is scheduled for about 6:30 p.m. and there are no lights at the track.
If qualifying gets rained out, the top 35 in Cup owner points make the field, and the rest of the spots are determined by previous race winners (owner and driver), past champions and then the teams that have had the most qualifying attempts, with ties broken by owner points. Cope’s team only has six attempts this year while Gunselman’s team has 17. Wise's H&S Motorsports team would fail to make the race based on its number of attempts to make races this year.
Sprint Cup teams are scheduled to practice from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Friday, while the Truck teams are scheduled to practice from 10 a.m.-11:20 a.m. and 1:10-2 p.m.
The forecast for the remainder of the weekend calls for an 80 percent chance of rain Saturday but clear on Sunday with a high in the low 60s.
