NASCAR defends decision to postpone

By Bob Pockrass - Associate Editor
Monday, February 25, 2008

FONTANA, Calif. – NASCAR officials felt they were always on the brink of getting the Auto Club 500 resumed late Sunday night at Auto Club Speedway but finally had to give up battling the weepers and dew at about 1:55 a.m. EST Monday.

NASCAR spent 4 hours, 42 minutes trying to dry the track after rain stopped the race after 87 of the scheduled 250 laps. The race had
originally been delayed about 2 1/2 hours because of rain.

NASCAR plans to resume the race at 1 p.m. EST Monday.

“The places that got dry, by the time [workers] got back to them on another lap, 20 minutes or so later with another set of dryers, it had
already picked up moisture again,” a dejected NASCAR Vice President Robin Pemberton said as the cars were being rolled into the Sprint Cup Series garage. “It was dew basically. The weepers will always be an issue – at a lot of race tracks that we go to, we have that from time to time.

“But even just on the regular surface, it was quite wet.”

A chorus of boos rang from the few thousand fans who had waited out the rain. NASCAR had spent about four hours drying the track.

“It quit raining, and we owe it to the fans who are here to try to do our best to get the show in,” Pemberton said. “Many times it’s only an hour, an hour and a half to try to dry the race track, and we worked at it 4 1/2 hours and still couldn’t get it dry. … Tonight, it just didn’t work out.

“We could have stayed after it and maybe have gotten it in another couple of hours and [the East Coast] could have watched us while they ate breakfast. But that wasn’t going to be fair, either. You just try. You try, you think you’re making a dent in it, and it just went south on us.”

Pemberton said he was optimistic NASCAR would get the track dry even though it had a difficult time drying the track before the race
eventually was started.

“I don’t think race fans mind 10 or 11 o’clock at night watching a race – it’s for the fans that are here as much as anything,” he said. “We had run out of time to get that done.

“We had thought when it had quit raining that we could get it dry in time. … All we can do is put our best foot forward. At the time, we thought we were going to get it. At anytime, we thought we were going to get it in 20 minutes. And when you’re working in that, sometimes it’s in vain.”

Another issue was that NASCAR already had postponed the Nationwide Series event to Monday.

“Trying to put on two shows tomorrow isn’t going to be easy either, but we’re going to do it,” Pemberton said Sunday night. “To try to
get one show in today is what our goal is going to be.”

Pemberton knows NASCAR will receive criticism for waiting so long before postponing the event.

“You can be upset at us for trying if you want to be, and that’s fair, but we’re always going to put our best foot forward,” Pemberton said. “With the lights here and everything, we thought we could get it pulled off, and it didn’t work.”

Earlier in the day, NASCAR had to stop the race for 67 minutes after 22 laps because water seeped up from underneath through the seams of the racing surface. There were two accidents prior to that point that could have been at least partially attributed to a wet surface. NASCAR cut lines into the pavement to help drain the excess water.

“It was good when we started it,” Pemberton said. “There were a couple of spots that came up – after we got running there in that early
part. We got all that handled when we got the cuts in the track, and the track came in.”

Comments

4 responses to "NASCAR defends decision to postpone". Post a Comment.
  1. 1
    arthur hohensee said:
    Feb 25, 2008 at 5:12 PM

    The fact that they try to get it in is 'all well and good' but come on guys. First bthe race never should have been started in the first place. They send 5 or 6 teams home without any chance to make the show, then send teams out to race on an Unsafe track, with water visibly leaking on the track. What happened to all the "SAFETY" that NASCRAP tries to tell us they worry about? Maybe I am just bitter because my guy got screwed on an unsafe track, but the facts are the track is and was unsafe to race on.

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  2. 2
    said:
    Feb 25, 2008 at 10:44 PM

    yes, we very much mind watching a race on tv that will END at 10 pm, let alone the insane idea that someone, anyone might have watched this race from the east coast after 11 est. new management is needed and encouraged..immediately! WAKE UP

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  3. 3
    arthur hohensee said:
    Mar 17, 2008 at 9:11 PM

    The fact that they try to get it in is 'all well and good' but come on guys. First bthe race never should have been started in the first place. They send 5 or 6 teams home without any chance to make the show, then send teams out to race on an Unsafe track, with water visibly leaking on the track. What happened to all the "SAFETY" that NASCRAP tries to tell us they worry about? Maybe I am just bitter because my guy got screwed on an unsafe track, but the facts are the track is and was unsafe to race on.

    Report Abuse

    This feature is intended to allow you to report comments that are abusive in terms of foul/vulgar language, harassment, racial/religious prejudice and any words/phrases of a related nature. This feature should not be used to report users who simply make a comment about your favorite driver, with which you do not agree. Commenting is a forum in which we can all express our opinions. Reporting abuse of others should be done with this in mind.

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  4. 4
    said:
    Mar 17, 2008 at 9:11 PM

    yes, we very much mind watching a race on tv that will END at 10 pm, let alone the insane idea that someone, anyone might have watched this race from the east coast after 11 est. new management is needed and encouraged..immediately! WAKE UP

    Report Abuse

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