It took a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada for the NASCAR Cup Series to finally have weather conditions suitable for a qualifying session to take place after two consecutive weekends of rainouts at Bristol Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway.
While it was one of the hottest NASCAR race weekends on record at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the Cup Series was successfully able to run a qualifying session, after three of the first four on this year's postseason schedule were canceled due to inclement weather.
But it already looks like that successful streak might end at just one week.
Rain predicted for Charlotte NASCAR weekend
Flooding from Hurricane Isaias is expected in Concord, North Carolina this weekend, which might not only result in the cancelation of qualifying but the postponement of Sunday's Bank of America 400, which is set to be the first playoff race contested on Charlotte Motor Speedway's oval, rather than the Roval, since 2017.
According to AccuWeather, there is a 56% chance of rain on Saturday and a 91% chance on Sunday, with the hurricane warning in effect from Saturday at 4:00 p.m. ET until Sunday at 10:00 p.m. ET.
Saturday's qualifying session at the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) oval is scheduled to begin at 2:05 p.m. ET, following practice at 1:00 p.m. ET. The race itself is scheduled to begin shortly after 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday afternoon.
After just four total qualifying sessions were canceled across the 2024 and 2025 seasons combined, NASCAR is very much at risk of a fourth cancelation in the first six races of the 2026 postseason alone, after five sessions were already canceled during the 26-race regular season.
If that were to happen, NASCAR would set the starting lineup based on the results of the qualifying metric (30% owner standings, 70% results of most recent race).
Obviously, the priority for everyone during a hurricane is safety, and that goes well beyond the race track. Hopefully the impact is minimal, regardless of what happens to the schedule for the upcoming race weekend.
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