Rain Continues to Cause Issues for NASCAR Officiating

It is testament to the optimistic disposition of human beings that few sporting events are designed in such a way as to be improved by, or even unhindered by, bad weather. All throughout history, it seems, we have been organising, planning, and creating sports which, in the overwhelming majority of cases, go off much better in those blissful conditions which all too often elude us. And, while some sports certainly fair better than others – for instance, baseball has long since held a reputation for the speeds with which it declares rainout, while soccer and football tend to press on until lightning begins to bear down from above – rain clouds continue to represent an impending sight on the horizon for the majority of sportsmen and women.

To those who know little about the sport, NASCAR represents something of an anomaly. With no hard balls to worry about in squally winds, nor any metal golf clubs to keep track of in lightning storms, the uninitiated could be forgiven for assuming that, provided some amendments are made in order to account for stopping distances, the sport could carry on relatively unaffected by a bit of rain. In reality, however, it is far more complicated than that – and, right now, rain is causing a major disruption to auto racing across the United States.

Just last month, at the opening race to the NASCAR Cup Series at the 3.426-mile Circuit of the Americas in Austin, officials called the race to a close due to heavy rain conditions which, while the dark clouds and wet skies had been looming over the racetrack even before the drop of the green flag, proved to be too much for even the wet weather tires.

The decision to call off the race was, for that reason, a controversial one. Rather than simply deferring the green flag or postponing the entire race altogether, officials elected to go ahead with the race despite conditions being sufficient to cause numerous crashes, spin outs, and, in the end, earn itself the red flag.

It has, by some, been dubbed one of the biggest catastrophes in NASCAR racing – so what’s next for the sport? Read more below.

A Wider Impact

Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr, Cole Custer, Joe Gibbs and Michael McDowell are just a few of the names involved in collisions and spin outs during the disastrous race, with Harvick dubbing the decision to proceed with the race as, “The worst decision that we’ve ever made in our sport that I’ve been a part of”.

The decision threw into sharp relief quite how dangerous the sport is – particularly when officials are at loggerheads with the elements.

Beyond the track itself, the impact was felt far and wide. It is only in recent years, for instance, that the sport has garnered a much wider following on gambling sites, owing to a relatively new ruling from SCOPUS that enables more than a small handful of states to enable sports betting.

In effect, this move created a healthy, fresh wave of interest in NASCAR – meaning, of course, that the spotlight is on this sport more than ever before. With the sport featuring heavily in site promotions and bonuses, every aspect of the cars, the drivers, and the courses is under heavy scrutiny by gamblers and bookies alike.

Couple this with the fact that the sport’s wet tires are famed for their inability to match the resilience of, say, F1’s wet tires, and inclement weather’s influence over the NASCAR continues to grow starker.

The decision to fly the red flag and end the race ahead of time was, in and of itself, a controversial one. While many felt the decision to start the race in the first place was misguided – and more still recognized the need to end it ahead of time – some accused officials of contriving a win for Chase Elliott.

The twenty-five year old driver, who had never before won a rain race – nor a race at the Circuit of the Americas – happened to be in the lead when the second red flag dropped. The controversy stems from the fact that Elliott was projected to run out of fuel ahead of the checkered flag – or would have faced an untimely pit stop ahead of the final laps.

Put simply, the red flag prevented Elliott from being forced to make that decision – for which both options could well have lost him a number of places in the race – and enabled him to achieve another victory, whether or not tactics supported it.

Will Officials Stop Taking a Wholly Reactionary Approach to Rain?

Whatever side of the ‘controversy fence’ you stand, there’s no denying that this race represents a pivotal moment for NASCAR, by virtue of its ability to exemplify a core issue that extends from officiating to the cars themselves: an ongoing and potentially disastrous underestimation of wet and inclement conditions.

It is, of course, worth noting that history repeated itself at the Circuit of the Americas. In October of 2020, the Xfinity race posed equally treacherous conditions – featuring near unrelenting rain, pooling water, and a red flag that lasted close to an hour – and led to a string of complaints from drivers and fans alike. At the time, officials stated that they would learn from their mistakes and ensure that driver safety was not compromised to such a degree in the future.

Of course, then May’s race at the Circuit of the Americas happened.

So, while it may well be too soon to make our minds up just yet, there is every chance that rain will continue to pose the greatest enemy to NASCAR racing – and the officials, whose indecisiveness stirred up buckets of controversy, their own greatest enemy.

Owing to the number of collisions, we can rest assured that a great deal of caution will be exercised over the next race that happens to coincide with substantial rainfall – although whether or not that newfound caution lasts in the coming months and years is left to be decided.