![Christopher Bell NASCAR]()
Well that was anticlimactic.
Seems like Mother Nature just wasn't a race fan this weekend, with the Indianapolis 500 being delayed due to storms earlier today, forcing Kyle Larson to
miss the start of the Coca-Cola 600 over in the NASCAR Cup Series after attempting to run the double on Memorial Day weekend.
Things started out better for
NASCAR, as the Coke 600 got started on time and made it 247 laps before the rain moved into Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Fans, and at the time NASCAR, were optimistic that the race would get restarted though, because the rain moved through quickly and stopped after only about 45 minutes.
With Larson finally at the track and ready to strap into his #5 Cup car when the race went back to green, NASCAR sent the dryers out onto the track to get things ready to go back to racing.
But after over an hour of drying the track...they changed their mind. Sorry, just kidding, race is over.
https://twitter.com/NASCAR/status/1794934251969794542
Christopher Bell was leading when the race was red flagged and ended up taking home the win, but it was a bizarre ending for NASCAR to get started drying the track and then just decide to call the race. Why not just call it as soon as the rain came if they knew it was going to be too late to get it restarted by the time the track was dry?
NASCAR's explanation was that due to the amount of rain and humidity, they realized that it would take too long to get the Coke 600 going on, with a possible start time not until after 1:00 AM at the track. And with over 150 laps left to go, that would have the race ending at 3:00 AM - or later.
But surely they knew that when they started drying the track?
Well the late call from NASCAR definitely didn't sit well with race fans:
https://twitter.com/RobertRiddleIN/status/1794937772085842291
https://twitter.com/ChampagneRacin/status/1794934887952310274
https://twitter.com/Christian_Racin/status/1794936735945875686
https://twitter.com/ryanpistana/status/1794935024237891816
https://twitter.com/itsmoonhead/status/1794936768997011590
https://twitter.com/BobbyWilkins352/status/1794944067186655484
https://twitter.com/bminto25/status/1794943843370258575
It didn't help that photos showed that NASCAR seemed to be making good progress on getting the track dry...
https://twitter.com/MatteAyce/status/1794935439385862317
https://twitter.com/NoContextNyoom/status/1794939334287933709
And of course many people suspected that it was actually FOX that made the call to throw in the towel.
https://twitter.com/SlimJimJZ/status/1794943192963662178
Regardless, it was a bizarre ending to what seemed to be shaping up to be a good race. But unfortunately, this one's now going to be remembered for other reasons...like NASCAR's strange timing and decision-making.
