NASCAR Cup Series: 2018 Overton’s 400 start time moved up

The start time for the 17th race of the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season, the Overton’s 400, has been moved up due to the threat of thunderstorms.

The Overton’s 400, which is the 17th race of the 36-race 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season, was originally scheduled to get underway tomorrow at 2:46 p.m. ET. However, that provisional start time has been changed.

As a result of the fact that there is an 80% chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon, the start time for the Overton’s 400 at the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Chicagoland Speedway oval in Joliet, Illinois has been moved up 14 minutes from 2:46 p.m. ET to 2:32 p.m. ET.

The race is scheduled for 267 laps. Wood Brothers Racing’s Paul Menard is set to start the race from the pole position in his #21 Ford. He has not started a race from the pole position since he started from the pole position in the 2018 Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

Start times for races have changed quite frequently throughout the course of the season thus far, so the tweak to the schedule for the Overton’s 400 is nothing new.

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With the weather being so unpredictable in the summer months especially, be prepared if a more adjustments have to be made not only to the schedule for tomorrow’s race but to the schedules for other races throughout the course of the rest of the 2018 season as well.

If tomorrow’s race ends up being delayed due to bad weather during the day but the weather clears up at night, the race could definitely be held at night since there are lights at Chicagoland Speedway.

That said, the race could also very well be suspended or postponed until Monday, July 2, as there is only a 20% chance of precipitation on that date. The race at Bristol Motor Speedway in mid-April was suspended, as some of it was completed on Sunday, April 15 and the rest of it was completed on Monday, April 16.

Keep in mind that once stage two is completed, the race is official. If the race ends up getting delayed after the second stage tomorrow, it would only be resumed tomorrow. Drivers and teams would not return to the track on Monday to finish all 267 of its scheduled laps. Stage one is scheduled to end after lap 80 tomorrow, and stage two is scheduled to end after lap 160.

The recent race at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday, June 10 was ended after just 133 of its scheduled 200 laps had been completed, as stage two had just been completed on lap 120 when rain began pouring down on the track.

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Tune in to NBC Sports Network at 2:30 p.m. ET tomorrow to watch the live broadcast of the Overton’s 400 from Chicagoland Speedway. The race, which is the first NASCAR Cup Series race scheduled to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network this season, is now scheduled to go green just two minutes after 2:30 p.m. ET, so be sure to tune in on time.