Stop me if you've heard this before … the Daytona 500 is currently delayed for rain.
After rain postponed last year's Daytona 500 after just 20 laps and forced a Monday finish, there's a chance we're in for more of the same for the 2021 edition of the Great American Race.
The NASCAR Cup Series raced just 15 laps before Kyle Busch and Christopher Bell triggered a big accident in the Daytona 500.
While cleanup was underway for that wreck, lightning and rain hit the racetrack, forcing a red flag.
With the Daytona 500 officially delayed for rain, the key question now surrounds whether weather will allow the race to get restarted, and finished, on Sunday.
Let's take a look at the latest Daytona 500 weather forecast.
Daytona 500 Weather Forecast
As of 3:50 p.m. ET on Sunday, the National Weather Service is forecasting a 70% chance of rain in Daytona Beach, Fla., throughout the day, with thunderstorm likely.
Not great.
And while the chance of precipitation does diminish on Sunday night, there's still a 60% chance of rain in Daytona, which is problematic for a handful of reasons:
- To start, Daytona International Speedway is a very large 2.5-mile track, meaning it takes a very long time to dry once it stops raining.
- In order to effectively dry the track, there needs to be a window of a couple of hours with no rain in order to let the jet dryers do their job.
On a positive note, Daytona does have lights, so if there is a long enough window of dry weather, NASCAR can certainly get cars back on the track no matter the time of day.
Monday looks much better from a weather standpoint, with just a 40% chance of rain in Daytona.
At the time of writing, Kevin Harvick is the race leader, with Christopher Bell, Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott rounding out the top 5.
