NASCAR postpones Texas playoff race to Monday

The NASCAR Cup Series round of 8 playoff race at Texas Motor Speedway has been suspended and postponed to Monday due to rain after 52 laps.

The plan was for the NASCAR Cup Series to be two races into the three-race round of 8 of the four-round, 10-race 2020 playoffs by this evening.

But that did not happen, as the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 at Texas Motor Speedway was started but halted due to weather, and it did not get restarted.

Just 52 laps of this 334-lap race around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) oval in Fort Worth, Texas had been contested when NASCAR threw the red flag, and despite the track drying efforts, there was no way to get the track into a raceable condition at any point throughout the rest of the day.

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As a result, the remainder of the race is scheduled to be contested tomorrow morning, beginning at 10:00 a.m. ET. It is set to pick up on lap 53.

Through the first 52 laps of the race, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Clint Bowyer is the leader. There have been four lead changes among five drivers. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick, who hit the wall in turn two and currently sits in 36th place, one lap off the lead lap, started from the pole position and has led a race-high 28 laps.

The postponement of this race makes it the third race to be moved to Monday this season. The Daytona 500 was started on Sunday, February 16 and then completed on Monday, February 17 due to rain to open up the season, and the first race at Talladega Superspeedway was postponed from Sunday, June 21 to Monday, June 22 due to rain.

NBC Sports Network is set to broadcast the final 282 laps of this race live beginning at 10:00 a.m. ET tomorrow morning.