Wet, Wild & Wacky Weekend at Kansas: Or What Else Could Go Wrong

Originally Posted on Foxsports on October 1, 2007.



I'm back from a crazy weekend at Kansas.

First, let me set the scene by telling you that the weather forecast since mid-week was for rain on Sunday.  As the race date approached, forecasters targeted the storm to move through between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., however, by Saturday night, the time had shifted to 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., with the possibility of severe weather (which in the midwest means hail, strong, damaging winds, and possibly a tornado).  Sunday morning brought the same forecast - rain mid-afternoon.

So, what does Nascar do?  Start the race late.  Storm clouds were gathering, and the  powers that be were running around the track every vehicle owned by every sponsor known to Nascar.  Yes, even the dalmation got to ride around the track.

Fans around me decided they were stalling the start in hopes it would rain out.


However, after apparently running out of vehicles to showcase, Nascar started the race.










And 13 laps later had to stop the race because of rain.  It rained just enough to get things wet.  In fact, I never left my seat and about 1/2 the crowd stayed in the stands.  It took time to dry the track, but the winds probably did more to dry the track than the blowers.  Nascar never did run the blowers down pit lane, but it dried.



After this delay, the race resumed.  The racing was good, and there were several battles for the lead, including this one between Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, and Matt Kenseth.













 
Meanwhile, the sky was looking more and more ominous.  When half-way was reached, many of the cars decided to pit.  Greg Zipadelli told Stewart that the rain was coming and to conserve fuel.  The tower was polling officials in each corner constantly to see if it was raining.







When the rain came, it wasn't a sprinkle - it started as a harder rain than before that progressed quickly to a downpour.  Fans scattered out of the stands, and announcements were made that fans should find shelter as there was severe weather in the area.


 When it finally stopped raining, which took around 45 minutes, Nascar decided to dry the track and race.  This was a questionable decision as there was NO WAY they could complete the advertised distance (or even the shortened distance) before night fell.  Plus, a large number of fans had left because they were soaked during the storm and there hadn't been room to take cover under the grandstand for all 80,000+ fans.




Eventually, drivers were returned to their cars and one lap was taken to clear pit road and open the pits for fuel.  Then the pits were closed and the blowers were sent down pit lane.  There were still wet spots on the apron and on the pit out road.

When the race resumed, there were numerous caution flags (Schrader-Kenseth-Truex crash; Stewart-Edwards-Busch crash; and Montoya tire).  When the caution came out for the Montoya tire issue, the Tower intended to have a quicky yellow.  However, the drivers, spotters and crew chiefs were registering complaints about the darkness to their pit officials.   The pace car driver notified the Tower that the entire backstretch would have to be blown off due to the shredded tire debris.  Thus, the clean up would take several laps and darkness was falling fast.
Add to this the fact that the parking areas were minimally lit for fans to find and return to their cars, and you suddenly get the picture why the race was called without a green-white-checkered.




This photo was taken after the checkered flag with Biffle in the grass. It was already getting dark.







And this was the score tower approximately 15 minutes later, which is about the amount of time it would have taken to complete the clean-up and run a green-white-checker.