FONTANA, Calif. — NASCAR postponed the Xfinity Collection race at Fontana to Sunday night time due to regular rain at Auto Membership Speedway on Saturday.

Observe and qualifying classes for each weekend races at Fontana had already been canceled due to constant, heavy rain from a unprecedented Southern California storm.

The Xfinity drivers nonetheless went by their introductions, acquired into their vehicles and took tempo laps throughout a brief break within the climate, however rain started to fall once more throughout the warmup. Monitor officers used jet dryers in an try to enhance the floor, however the activity rapidly grew to become not possible.

Drivers laughed after they noticed their breath freeze whereas they took their tempo laps, and so they audibly nervous in regards to the steadily rising rain till NASCAR red-flagged them shortly earlier than the beginning. The vehicles have been parked in pit lane below their rain covers for nearly an hour earlier than NASCAR lastly gave up on racing roughly 2½ hours after the scheduled begin time with the temperature at 41 levels.

The Xfinity race will now happen after the Cup Collection race Sunday, with an anticipated native begin time of 5 p.m.

Each the Cup Collection and Xfinity Collection drivers should race with out observe on the observe east of Los Angeles, with the beginning orders decided by the metric used to set the qualifying order.

Christopher Bell might be on the pole for Sunday’s Cup race, with Daytona 500 champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. becoming a member of him on the entrance row.

That is the ultimate race weekend on the famously weathered asphalt of the 2-mile observe at Auto Membership Speedway. A half-mile observe is anticipated to be constructed on the positioning over the following two years, which suggests NASCAR will not race in Southern California subsequent yr.

Whereas drivers uniformly love the racing on the weathered asphalt of Fontana’s 2-mile observe, in addition they know Sunday could possibly be difficult even when the rain stops as anticipated in a single day. Together with uncommonly chilly temperatures, the aged racing floor might be significantly vulnerable to weeping — when moisture seeps by the cracks in a racetrack lengthy after the rain.

“I am not as involved in regards to the chilly temperatures as I’m in regards to the observe weeping,” defending Cup Collection champion Joey Logano mentioned. “Older observe floor, a whole lot of cracks inside it, I’d assume it will be onerous to drive this factor. And we’re most likely going to start out with moist spots on the racetrack. I do not know if they are going to have the ability to get all of them, and it is onerous to do it as a result of the observe is so broad. The racing groove is so broad.”