NASCAR: Talladega weather update, and it’s not super great

After rain caused Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway to be postponed until today, how does the weather look for this afternoon?

The round of 12 NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway scheduled for Sunday afternoon became the third race to be postponed in the last five visits to the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked oval in Lincoln, Alabama going back to October 2019.

This race was initially delayed by about an hour, and when the rain stopped and the track had been dried, the cars exited the pits and ran the pace laps in preparation for the green flag.

But it was a green flag that never came, as more rain forced NASCAR to reschedule the race until this afternoon.

NBC Sports Network is set to broadcast the YellaWood 500 live beginning at 1:00 p.m. ET, so be sure to start your free trial of FuboTV today if you have not yet done so!

But what are the chances that the race actually happens?

There is unfortunately more rain in the forecast. But while we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves or be overly optimistic, this may not be as dire as it sounds.

According to The Weather Channel, following this morning’s showers in Lincoln, there is no greater than a 24% chance of rain until 3:00 p.m. ET, when there is a 31% chance of scattered thunderstorms. That percentage increases later into the day.

Provided that the track drying efforts are successful and the race is indeed able to get underway at 1:00 p.m. ET or a few minutes after, this could still give NASCAR enough time to run the full race; the race would not be started if NASCAR did not believe they could pull this off.

With that being said, NASCAR will not hesitate to call the race after the halfway mark if bad weather does become a serious issue.

But there isn’t a ton of leeway, and that’s where things get very sketchy.

Thunderstorms appear to be on the way for the remainder of the evening after that, and in addition to the fact that Talladega Superspeedway does not have lights, the projection is that they won’t stop for days. As for the rest of the week, there is an 84% chance of storms throughout Tuesday and a 97% chance throughout Wednesday.

Let’s hope we don’t get another repeat from Texas Motor Speedway last October, when a Sunday race turned into a Monday race, which turned into a Tuesday race, which ultimately turned into a Wednesday race — though admittedly, a Wednesday race was better than no race at all.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, who is set to start from the pole position behind the wheel of his #11 Toyota after winning the round of 12 opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last Sunday night, is listed as the favorite by WynnBET to win the YellaWood 500 at +850. He won last year’s playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway as well.

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