Rain postpones first Chase race until Monday

(September 18, 2011)JOLIET, Ill.—
The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup will have to wait a day.

Rain postpones first Chase race until Monday 12 Noon

Intermittent rainstorms thwarted track-drying efforts Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway, forcing postponement of the Geico 400—the first Chase race—until noon ET Monday. The race will be televised by ESPN.

Matt Kenseth, who won the pole for the first Chase race to be held at the 1.5-mile speedway, will lead the field to the green flag roughly 22 hours after the scheduled start time.

For the second time in three weeks, a Cup race wasn’t run on its appointed day. The Sept. 4 event at Atlanta Motor Speedway was postponed from Sunday to the following Tuesday when the remnants of tropical storm Lee stormed through the Southeast.

Chase qualifiers earned five of the top six spots during Saturday’s qualifying session. In addition to Kenseth on the pole, Kurt Busch starts third, Ryan Newman fourth, Carl Edwards fifth and Brad Keselowski sixth.

The only exception in the top six is Paul Menard, who qualified second.

The rest of the Chase drivers will start as follows: Kyle Busch ninth, Jimmie Johnson 12th, Dale Earnhardt Jr. 19th, Jeff Gordon 23rd, Tony Stewart 26th, Denny Hamlin 27th and Kevin Harvick 30th.

Kenseth said his car handled the bumps in Turn 3 in qualifying trim, but he had concerns about how the car would handle in the 400-mile race.

“It is not just about who can get through the bumps, but the way they are in Turn 3, that’s an important part of the track,” Kenseth said. “Where the biggest bumps are is kind of your entry and where you are trying to get to your marks in Turn 3. For me, when we didn’t have it quite right, no matter what I did, it was hard to make a fast lap time.

“It’s not just about that, but I think to have the front end working good everywhere, it’s going to have to work good in those bumps. Certainly, if you go high enough you can go around them, but I would assume most guys are going to be on the top on a long run and if you expect to pass, the better cars will have to get through there.”

NASCAR will call a competition caution on Lap 30, so teams can inspect their tires, given that the rain has washed the rubber from the track.

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service