Lightning strikes and persistent rain forced postponement of Sunday’s GEICO 500 NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway until Monday afternoon.
The 13th race of 2020—marking the halfway point of the Cup Series’ regular season—has been rescheduled for 3 p.m. ET Monday, to be broadcast on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
By the luck of the draw, Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch will lead the field to green from the top three spots on the grid. Hamlin leads the series with three victories in the first 12 races of the season.
At 2.66 miles, Talladega is NASCAR’s longest oval track. When a second rain cell hit the speedway in the late afternoon, NASCAR called the race. Because Talladega does not have lights for night racing, the event would not have reached completion before dark.
Chevrolet driver Chase Elliott is the defending winner, but Fords have won eight of the last nine Cup events at the track.
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.