After a day of off-and-on rain, NASCAR officials have finally been forced to postpone Sunday's Geico 400 at the Chicagoland Speedway until Monday at 12 p.m. Eastern, 11 a.m. local time. The event will be shown on ESPN.
The postponement marks the first time an event in the Chase for the Sprint Cup has been postponed by rain, and the second rain delay in three weeks. The Advocare 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, originally scheduled for Sunday, September 4, finally ran the following Tuesday afternoon.
The Watkins Glen event last month was also postponed, the first race to be pushed back since April 2010.
Chicago was looking to host the Chase opener for the first time - becoming the only track other than New Hampshire Motor Speedway to host the first race of the 10-event playoff -and had moved from its traditional July date to fulfill that. Rain never affected a July race at Chicago, though qualifying sessions were hampered at times.