NASCAR v. Mother Nature

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NASCAR may need to renegotiate its deal with Mother Nature because she certainly hasn't been playing along these days. Rain has delayed three of the last six Sprint Cup races. And things are looking iffy for New Hampshire this weekend.

Unfortunately, the last two NASCAR races I've been to have been rainouts at Watkins Glen (pure coincidence -- I'm sure it has nothing to do with me). We traveled a couple hundred miles to see the races and had planned to travel home on Monday. So we could stick around to see the race. But for many of the fans, sticking around or coming to the track the next day just wasn't an option.

Here's the frustrating thing. Walking through the pits, we could see stacks and stacks of Goodyear rain tires. Rolex and Nationwide were fully prepared to run in the rain, but it was nothing but blue skies for those races. On Sunday, the rain started just as the National Anthem was ending, but for whatever reason the Sprint Cup cars would not be running in the rain. It's almost like carrying an umbrella with you and it never rains, but it pours when you don't have one.

While at the Glen race, I went to Q&A sessions with Matt Kenseth and Brett Bodine, who now is the Director of Competition for Research and Development for NASCAR (and the pace car driver). I asked them both whether we ever would see a Sprint Cup car running in the rain at Watkins Glen. Neither gave a definitive yes, but neither really gave a definitive no either.

The question of whether Sprint Cup cars should run on rain tires really only applies to the road courses, and there are only two of those on the schedule every year. But maybe rain tires are something that Sprint Cup should really start thinking about for the road races. At the very least, it's two races where NASCAR wouldn't have to worry about a rainout (as much).

Until then, I'll see what I can do about working something out with Mother Nature.