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By JENNA FRYER
TALLADEGA, Alabama – The NASCAR playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway has been canceled and postponed to October 4 because persistent rain made the series too narrow to go as planned.
The race was initially delayed by nearly two hours and NASCAR made an attempt on October 3 to start the 500 mile. But it started to rain again as the cars circled the 2.66 mile superspeedway behind the race car.
Talladega has no lights – the Xfinity Series race on October 2 ended six laps earlier due to looming darkness – and the long delay meant NASCAR would flirt with sunset if it started even the race. Talladega’s 500 miles are an average of 3 hours and 41 minutes and NASCAR doesn’t like to start a race unless it expects it to be finished.
To compound the timing issue, the Cup Series race was the starting point for NBC’s broadcast later on the night of Tom Brady’s return to New England, an NFL game that would have taken precedence over the race. The delayed start is at 1 p.m. on October 4 on NBC Sports Network.
The first weather reports also called for rain in Alabama on October 4. Ditto for October 5 and part of October 6.
Talladega marks the median run of the second round of the NASCAR playoffs, with the hybrid / oval road course at Charlotte Motor Speedway slated for next week’s playoff race. The 12-driver field of the playoffs will be reduced to eight at The Roval, and only Talladega poleman Denny Hamlin has already secured a berth for the third round.
The riders were on the alert at Talladega due to the unpredictability of the 2.66 mile superspeedway and the risks of pack racing. The Truck Series race and the double Xfinity Series race on October 2 were marred and won by non-qualifying drivers.
Cup drivers don’t want the same aggressive race, because one wrong move can trigger wreckage that ruins the championship.
“I’m going to be in a superspeedway race below the cut-off line so it’s definitely a stressful weekend,” said Alex Bowman, 11th of 12 drivers, Oct. 3. “We’re going to run to win, right?” This is our game plan.
NASCAR and NBC were in talks on how to tone down the crowd mood after spectators at Talladega on October 2 chanted an expletive to President Joe Biden that was echoed on the air during the interview with the winner Brandon Brown.
The winner of the race usually stops at the frontstretch to pick up the checkered flag and then do a live interview. The chants of October 2 in Talladega, where a convoy of trucks and motorcycles waved Confederate flags as they paraded past the main entrance on Speedway Boulevard, could be heard during Brown’s interview.
The ideas discussed were to move the interview away from the podium fence in order to decrease ambient noise.
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