Daytona 500 postponed until 7 p.m. tonight

The Daytona 500 - which had never been postponed in its history - has been delayed again.

NASCAR was going to try a noon Eastern start today for 2012's biggest Sprint Cup Series race but has now rescheduled the season opener for 7 tonight. It will be broadcast live on Fox.

Rain continues to fall in the area.

NASCAR President Mike Helton said there was a "reasonable expectation" the race can begin by 7 p.m.

NASCAR update on rain delay

   NASCAR President Mike Helton provided Fox Sports an update on Sunday's rain-delayed 500:

   Q: The cars cannot race in the rain. We have been rain-shortened, we have been rain-delayed but we've never rained out. With all of the information available to you, what are we looking at? What is the contingency right now?
   It's one of those days here in Daytona where it pops up and falls off and pops up and falls off. But as the day progresses, we think the chances of the pop-ups diminish quite a bit. Hopefully this will be the last big cell we see and things will start falling apart and we can get the track dry and go on and get finish and run the Daytona 500 today.

   Q: I understand your crew has an unprecedented amount of equipment, jet dryers and other machinery to get the track as raceable as quickly as possible once the rain stops.
   HELTON: That is it needsto stop before we can begin the process of drying. So we areequipped. The International Speedway, the Daytona International Speedway, has every drying piece of machinery they got across the country here today, because we know that the fans at home and the fans here in Daytona want to see the race run, and we do, too. The sooner, the better.

It's raining at Daytona

  It's approximately 90 minutes before the green flag is scheduled to drop on the Daytona 500 and right now the only thing dropping is rain.

   That's no surprise. It's been predicted for a while and, say what you will about weather forecasters, but they got it right this time.

  The question is when will it stop raining. It will eventually stop. It always has.

  NASCAR will do its best to get its biggest race in today, studying radar images in NASA-like detail, looking for a window to get in at least 100 laps (250 miles). With lights at Daytona, no one's going anywhere for a while.

   At the moment, ponchos are obscuring the multi-colored t-shirts so popular among race fans and there are tarps over the set that rocker Lenny Kravitz is scheduled to use for his pre-race concerts. Kravitz did stop into the infield media center earlier for a quick question-and-answer session and said he's pulling for Danica Patrick today.

   Wearing a heavy jacket, a brown scarf around his neck and Tom Cruise/Top Gun-style shades, Kravitz looked like he was ready for a winter walk in Paris rather than the infield at a stock car race.

   Presidential candidate Mitt Romney stopped by to campaign today and, at the drivers meeting, said the Daytona 500 combines "two of the things I like best -- cars and sports."

   While Romney showed up in person, Rick Santorum's name showed up on the side of Tony Raines' race car. The Florida primary has come and gone but the campaign continues.

   So, for the moment, does the rain.

-- Ron Green Jr.

Keselowski talks late-race cautions

   NASCAR had a quick trigger finger when it came to throwing a caution for a last-lap wreck in Thursday's first Gatorade 150-mile qualifying race.

   In Saturday's Nationwide race, a 14-car wreck off Turn 4 of the last lap saw no caution flag until the race winner reached the finish line.

   Brad Keselowski, who could have won the race depending on the timing of the flag, was asked about last-lap caution decisions and how drivers respond to them.

   "You know, I think that I walk a fine line with the comment there, obviously. I think there is no doubt to me the most dangerous aspect of our sport that’s left is the yellow flag situation in the closing laps of a race. And I make those comments not in regard to the fact that if the yellow came out a little earlier I would have won the race, in no way do I make those comments in that regard. I make those comments in regards to the fact that if you’re running 25th, five or six seconds behind the pack when the wreck happened, the yellow didn’t come out for about six seconds from what I can estimate. And obviously there was a lot of attention on that area so I’m pretty sure it was seen," he said.
   
   "So the question is what is the appropriate amount of time? I think it’s very much a judgment call. With the wreck, I think it was in the Shootout, I think I would rather lean to the cautious side. It’s tough for NASCAR, obviously, to wave the yellow early and then take all the criticism from fans that didn’t see their driver win if the yellow wouldn’t have come out that early. So I can see that side of it, but I think that when I look at the sport and I look at the most dangerous frontier, it’s not the head and neck system or anything like that. It’s getting hit from a car that is six or seven second behind a wreck, but has to keep going because the yellow is not out. 

   "Eventually it will happen where they’ll hit a very, very slow car at a very high rate of speed and it will not be good. So I think that that’s an area that is still loosely defined and I’m not sure how to define it because I understand the difficulties that remain in that area to make those decisions. When I think of what I’m most nervous about, I’m most nervous about the last lap, being in the front pack, being wrecked and stopped in the middle of the field and some guy from 35th, knowing that the yellow is not going to come out for another six seconds, whales me going 180 when I’m going five or 10 or maybe stopped. That’s certainly an area that I think about for sure.”

 

Attention on Danica Patrick irks Robinson

   Apparently the first woman driver to win a pole in the NASCAR Nationwide Series is not all that happy with the attention being lauded on the most recent.

    On Saturday, Shawna Robinson, who became the first woman to win a pole in March 1994 at Atlanta, posted the following message on her Facebook page:

    "OK I've held it in long enough!!! It's not that hard to qualify at Daytona or Talladega!! Race, draft yes …qualifying is CAR! If only POLAROID would have been the event sponsor and I was driving for Tony!!"

     Robinson was referring to Danica Patrick, who won the pole for Saturday's series season opener at Daytona International Speedway. Her reference to Tony Stewart is likely related to Patrick's Sprint Cup Series team, but in the Nationwide series Patrick drives for JR Motorsports, owned in part by driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.

    In fairness Patrick did assign much of the credit for the pole-winning run to crew chief Tony Eury Jr. and her team for building a fast car.

    Robinson made 61 starts in what is now the Nationwide Series, winning one pole and one Top-10 finish, a 10th in 1994 at Watkins Glen, N.Y.

Budweiser's role at Daytona grows

    Budweiser and Daytona International Speedway announced on Friday the beer brand will take on an enhanced role in NASCAR’s season opening festivities.

   Beginning with the 2013 season, Budweiser will become the official title sponsor of Speedweeks – the 10-day stretch of stock-car races from the Shootout to the Daytona 500. Budweiser also will secure entitlement of the Budweiser Duel at Daytona, the two 150-mile qualifying races that determine the starting lineup for the Daytona 500. These enhancements to Budweiser’s partnership with DIS will replace the brand’s existing entitlement of the season-opening, non-points Shootout, which concluded this season.

   “Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway marks the official start of the NASCAR season, and the opportunity to expand our presence throughout the ten-day event puts Budweiser even more in the thick of it all,” said Brad Brown, vice president of sports & entertainment marketing, Anheuser-Busch. “The Shootout has been an important element of our NASCAR program for 34 years, but this opportunity to enhance our partnership makes Budweiser even more relevant to our consumers as well as the fans of the Daytona 500.” 

   As part of the sponsorship, Budweiser will also receive the presenting sponsorship of the Daytona 500 pre-race broadcast show. The brand will also receive increased access for consumer hospitality events, including naming rights to the 5th Turn hospitality area throughout Speedweeks.

Trevor Bayne lends an assist

   The Daytona 500 qualifying process of late has brought out the best in some NASCAR drivers.

   Last year, it was Brad Keselowski who drafted with his older brother, Brian, in a two-car tandem, helping Brian claim a transfer spot and making the field for the Daytona 500.

   On Thursday, Michael McDowell got a serious boost in his Gatorade qualifying race to earn a transfer spot as his friend and last year's 500 champion, Trevor Bayne, worked with McDowell for a large portion of the race.

   McDowell said Bayne was "absolutely the reason" he is in the 500 this season.

   "Trevor is obviously a close friend of mine and for him to take the unselfish route and help me out means a lot to me," McDowell said. "There’s been a lot of ups-and-downs for him in his career as well, so it’s just cool we’ve been able to go through those together and for him to push me into the 500 is definitely pretty special."

   Working with a small team (Phil Parsons Racing), McDowell knew the road was going to be tough to make another 500 field.

   "I had to qualify in and I’ve been on the outside looking in too, so just know that this is extremely special not just for me and my family, but for our whole team," he said.

   "We’ve got six guys back at the shop that worked really hard in the off-season to give us a fast car and it’s just cool to be able to carry the Curb-Agajanian brand, the 98 car, and to have K-LOVE radio – a Christian radio network on the car – and to have Curb Records as well is a good start for us. This is the start of big things for us.”