Rain played havoc with the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500 on Sunday. Ultimately, the race was postponed until 4 p.m. ET Monday after 20 laps of the 200-lap scheduled distance were completed Sunday afternoon.
After a brief shower that began just before the 40-car race field was to take the green flag delayed the start of the race for approximately and hour, the race got underway and 20 laps were completed under green before rain returned, first in the turns one and two end of the race track.
The race will resume with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. as the leader and Joey Logano, Aric Almirola, Ryan Newman, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski also in the top-five.
“See you tmw race fans!” Logano [@JoeyLogano] tweeted after the announcement of the postponement.
Stenhouse started on the pole and led all 20 laps completed Sunday. Alex Bowman started alongside Stenhouse on the front row, but when the race got underway, Logano moved up from the third starting position to take second and brought some fellow-Ford drivers with him. By lap six, Stenhouse, in a Chevrolet, led five Fords.
NASCAR and track personnel nearly had the task of track drying completed to restart the race Sunday evening, so teams uncovered their race cars and drivers were called back to the cars. But before the race could be resumed, harder rain pelted the track.
“Back on here again, darn rain,” Keselowski [@Keselowski] tweeted during the delay.
The five Toyotas in the race were together in the back throughout Sunday’s laps. Defending Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin had to drop to the back for the start of the race after his car failed pre-race inspection twice. His car chief Eric Phillips also was ejected from the Daytona garage/pit.
Rookie driver Christopher Bell, somewhat of a teammate to Hamlin since his Leavine Family Racing team has a strong technical alliance with Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing team, also had to drop to the back for the start of the race because of an unapproved adjustment.
JGR’s other three drivers — reigning Cup Series champion Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and Erik Jones — drifted to the back early in the race to assist their teammates. Busch, though, didn’t have as far back to go, as he qualified 28th.
Ryan Blaney and Ty Dillon also were among the drivers who had to drop to the back to start the race — Blaney because he was in a backup car after getting caught up in a race earlier in the week, and Dillon because of a transmission change.
