It would not be Speedweeks without an article dedicated to the weather forecast in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Of course, the forecast will probably change five or eight times between me typing this sentence and this article actually being published. Nevertheless, it's always something to consider, especially for the more than 150,000 fans planning to be in attendance at the "World Center of Racing" this weekend.
Several race weekends at Daytona International Speedway, even in February, have been altered due to rain and storms, most recently last year's, which saw, among other lower series schedule changes, the Daytona 500 completely postponed to Monday for the second time ever and for the first time since 2012.
The 2020 Daytona 500 was started on Sunday afternoon and stopped before it was resumed on Monday evening, and the 2021 race was delayed until late Sunday night and did not ultimately finish until early Monday morning. So these types of changes are far from uncommon.
According to The Weather Channel, there's a decent chance this year's schedule will have to be altered in some way, shape, or form as well.
Daytona race weekend facing possible bad weather
The ARCA Menards Series, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and of course, the NASCAR Cup Series are all scheduled to be in action this weekend, with practice and qualifying sessions for each, plus the two Bluegreen Vacations Duel races for the Cup Series on Thursday night, as well as the races themselves.
The Truck Series race, the Fresh From Florida 250, is scheduled to take place on Friday, February 14 at 7:30 p.m. ET (Fox Sports 1). Saturday, February 15 is set to feature both the ARCA race, the Daytona ARCA 200, at 12:00 p.m. ET (Fox), plus the Xfinity Series race, the United Rentals 300, at 5:00 p.m. ET (the CW Network).
The 67th running of the Daytona 500 is scheduled to take place on Sunday, February 16 at 2:30 p.m. ET (Fox).
A full weekend schedule can be found here.
Wednesday's forecast is great, with mostly sunny skies predicted and only an 8% chance of rain. But there is a 50% chance for rain on Thursday afternoon. However, Thursday night's forecast is more promising, with only a 24% chance of precipitation.
On Friday, mostly cloudy skies are predicted, and there is once again only a 24% chance of rain. Morning showers are a 35% possibility on Saturday.
Then there is Sunday, which currently has the worst forecast of the weekend. There is a 57% chance of afternoon showers, which could result in delays. Barring a forecast change, however, it's hard to imagine another full-blown Daytona 500 postponement.
Fortunately, if the forecast changes and there is a postponement, there is only a 3% chance for rain on Monday and a 5% chance on Tuesday.
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