This week, NASCAR heads to Thunder Valley for all three of its top-tier series at Bristol Motor Speedway. With the regular season winding down and a tight race for the coveted wild card positions in the Sprint Cup Series, and a close battle in the points standings in the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series, and the added excitement of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour on the schedule, there is all kinds of great racing on tap this week. Oh, and there’s that whole track reconfiguration thing, too! Here’s a look at the weather forecast for this week’s events, which start unusually early in the week!
It looks like this will be a relatively easy forecast for a change. I’ll take it! In the next week, I’ll be moving into a new house, sending my oldest daughter off to her first day of kindergarten, and closely monitoring Isaac out in the tropics for my day job, which involves keeping our oil and gas rig operators in the Gulf of Mexico informed of the latest on the storm. A simple forecast is just what I need. Now if I can just get AT&T to speed up the process of installing cable TV at our new house so I can actually see this race! But enough about me… on to the forecast.
The race weekend starts early with the Craftsman Truck Series UNOH 200 starting at 8:00 pm on Wednesday and preceded by the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour UNOH Perfect Storm 150 at 6:30 pm (those modifieds always put on a good show!). The weather looks perfect for both races, with temperatures starting off in the upper 70s to near 80 at the start of the Whelen Modified race, and mid 70s as the green flag drops for the trucks. Skies will be mostly clear to partly cloudy, winds light, and I’ve got no chance of rain in the forecast.
Thursday is an off day for track activities before the action picks up again on Friday, and the weather isn’t going to change much from earlier in the week! We’re still looking at mostly clear skies for Friday night’s Nationwide Series Food City 250, with no chance of rain and temperatures in the mid 70s at the drop of the green flag, cooling to the mid 60s by the end of the race.
Looking ahead to Saturday night’s Sprint Cup Series race, The Irwin Tools Night Race, expect more of the same but with one small (I repeat, small) change. There will be a slim chance of an afternoon or evening shower or thunderstorm, as high pressure over the area begins to weaken a bit. These showers will tend to die off with the loss of daytime heating, and there is some indication that they will be limited to the east side of the Appalachian Mountains instead of the west side where Bristol lies, but I have to mention the chance of a pop-up shower as of now. I do not, however, think this will have much impact on the race itself, and I fully expect us to get the whole 500 miles in Saturday night. Temperatures will start off around 77 degrees and fall into the upper 60s by race’s end.
If you are one of the many camping out at the track this week, the weather looks great for you. Daytime highs will be in the mid 80s Wednesday through Saturday, with overnight low temperatures in the 50s through Friday morning (perfect for the sleeping bag), and low 60s Saturday and Sunday morning.
The only chance of rain looks to be that slight chance of a rouge shower or thunderstorm Saturday afternoon and early evening, but this is certainly one of the best looking forecasts we’ve had in a while!
So it’s all green flags from me for this week’s activities! Enjoy the races and be sure to check in with us next week as we look at the forecast for my home track, Atlanta Motor Speedway. That one will be personal, as it will be my 27th consecutive year of attending NASCAR races at AMS! Lets just hope Isaac doesn’t decide to ruin the party. I’ll be watching it!