TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Rain Postpones Nationwide Race Until Tonight

ADVERTISEMENT

A Tribune staff, wire report

Published: February 24, 2008

FONTANA, Calif. - Steady rain Saturday night forced the postponement of the NASCAR Nationwide Series race until tonight, following the Sprint Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway.

Officials waited more than two hours, making several attempts to dry the 2-mile oval, before finally giving up in the face of a worsening forecast.

The National Weather Service was calling for heavy rain and high wind during the night, with the rain expected to taper off during the day today. The Auto Club 500 is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m., and the Nationwide race would be run after its completion.

Rain has hampered activities at the track formerly known as California Speedway since Friday, when all on-track activites were washed out, including qualifying for the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series races.

NASCAR did manage to get the truck race run and part of a Cup practice on Saturday before the rain came.

Kyle Busch Dominates NASCAR Truck Race

FONTANA, Calif. - It doesn't matter what kind of car Kyle Busch is driving these days, he's tough to beat.

The 23-year-old racer added a victory Saturday in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Auto Club Speedway to his runner-up finish in the truck race last week at Daytona. He also finished second in the Daytona Nationwide Series event and fourth in the Daytona 500.

Busch was dominant in the 100-lap truck race, leading 51 laps. He was out front going into a round of green flag pit stops late in the event and retook the lead for good on lap 91 with a lead of almost 3.5 seconds over Daytona winner Todd Bodine.

Bodine raced Saturday without crew chief Mike Hillman Jr., serving a four-race suspension after inspectors found an unauthorized device used to lower his truck in prequalifying inspection at Daytona. Bodine was docked 25 points and car owner Stephen Germain lost 25 points for the infraction.

None of that slowed down Bodine, though. The former series champion led 25 laps but couldn't catch Busch's Toyota Tundra at the end, cutting the margin to 1.415 seconds at the finish.

"Truck series is a great steppingstone," Busch said. "This is just so much fun to run with these guys."

NHRA: At Chandler, Ariz., Tim Wilkerson raced to his second consecutive No. 1 qualifying position of the Funny Car season, topping qualifying for the Checker Schuck's Kragen NHRA Nationals at Firebird International Raceway.

Brandon Bernstein (Top Fuel) and Allen Johnson (Pro Stock) also were the No. 1 qualifiers in their divisions in the second NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series event of the season.

RAINED OUT: Heavy rain Saturday morning washed out the afternoon and evening shows for the NeSmith Chevrolet Dirt Late Model Series at East Bay Raceway Park.

The races will not be made up. Thursday night's program was rained out, but it was made up Friday with Keith Nosbisch of Valrico, winning the 40-lap event.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT